Oxford Duplication Centre Ltd

Acetate Film Base Beginning in the mid-1920s, highly flammable nitrate film was slowly replaced with cellulose acetate film base (cellulose diacetate, cellulose acetate propiarate, cellulose acetate butyrate and cellulose triacetate).  It became known as "Safety" film. Despite this name, cellulose acetates do have stability problems. Like cellulose nitrate, the deterioration of cellulose acetate is autocatalytic: once deterioration has begun, the degradation products induce further deterioration. It affects the plastic support of acetate film, causing it to become acidic, to shrink, and to give off of acetic acid producing a vinegary odor.  A useful tool in helping determine the amount of acid vapor present, and gain an overview of the condition of acid vapors in an entire collection are "A-D Strips" (acid-detecting strips). They are acid-base indicator papers, which turn from blue to green to yellow in the presence of acid, and measure the extent of the acetate bas...

Memories  are an important part of all our lives. Old letters, photographs, scrapbooks, slides and negatives, glass plates, cine film, audio-visual tapes and many other things help us to recall our past and the history of our family and communities. All of these things, however, are subject to decay and eventual destruction if they are not cared for properly.  Oxford Duplication Centre in Kidlington can support all our clients with digitisation of all consumers, corporate and heritage scanning and digitisation.  Please do email cheryl@oxfordduplicationcentre.com or contact us 01865 457000 to discuss your project. Letters, Diaries, Books and Documents.   Many families preserve letters, diaries, or other written documents in which family members discuss their life and times. World War II remembrances have led many families to look for a relative's carefully stored letters. Other families have saved newspaper clippings of important family events, such as the announcemen...

INTRODUCTION New technologies are adopted based on their advantages, and disadvantages are considered later or sometimes not at all. Preservation often involves working to mitigate those disadvantages and, in the case of photography, this means working to increase the stability of inherently unstable materials.  There are three broad types of film-based photographic materials: cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetates, and polyester. These materials have been used as a support for negatives, positive transparencies, motion pictures, microfilm, and other photographic products. Unfortunately, cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetates are unstable. The products of their degradation can severely harm and even destroy photographic collections, in addition to posing serious safety hazards.   IDENTIFICATION Nitrate Film Base In August 1889, Eastman Kodak began selling the first photographic negatives on cellulose nitrate flexible film support. This innovation was the foundation of an...