ABSTRACT
A simplified account of the pre-history of nitrate motion picture film begins in 1846 when German-Swiss chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein discovered cellulose nitrate—alternatively known as nitrocellulose or gun cotton—when he combined cotton cellulose fibers with nitric and sulfuric acids. As with celluloid more generally, motion picture film was challenging and dangerous to manufacture, and global output was controlled by only a few companies. As early as 1897, researchers and chemists were trying to reduce the risk of film fires by dealing with the flammable stock itself. Nitrate’s flammability was only half of the preservation equation, however. Archives also had to reckon with the material’s intrinsic chemical instability. While many film historians and archivists still view nitrate motion picture film chiefly as “a difficult and expensive fire hazard”, others praise it as a “technological success story”, the very thing that “made cinema possible”.
