Cellulose
From PhalkeFactory
Cellulose nitrate is a very unstable material whose estimated life barely reaches 100 years, according to the most recent scientific research. The phases in the process of decomposition are, sadly, well known in film archives. The cellulose base becomes brittle and shrinks so much that it cannot be projected anymore; the photographic emulsion fades;reels develop a layer of brown powder on teh surface, then become so sticky that it becomes impossible even to rewind the film, and the image is lost. In the last stages, nitrate film is reduced to a potentially explosive crystallised mass. Paolo Cherchi Usai, The color of Nitrate. essay on coloured silent cinema
