Historical Society dinner a success
Apr. 18—GREENSBURG — The Historical Society of Decatur County hosted its annual dinner meeting and program Saturday evening at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center, 209 W. Washington Street.
HSDC President Tom Barker greeted guests at 6 p.m. and Linda Volk offered a blessing before attendees were treated to a dinner of roast beef, green beans, steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes and dessert.
After HSDC board members, volunteers and key guests were recognized, Barker presented his program "Tales from the Archives...Adventures in Cellulose Nitrate."
A number of years ago, Barker was given a collection of 35 mm cellulose nitrate film clips that had been the property of John Stafford of Geneva, Indiana for 50 years. Shot in 1927, the clips were assumed to be of the airplane "Spirit of St. Louis" after its historic first trans-Atlantic flight.
Barker said that even though the films were rapidly deteriorating, he was able to save at least 100 images that had not been seen in public for 100 year.
According to Wikipedia, film stock with a nitrate base was the first transparent flexible film commercially available thanks to celluloid developments by John Carbutt, Hannibal Goodwin and Eastman Kodak in the 1880s.
Eastman was the first to manufacture the film stock for public sale in 1889.
Unfortunately, nitrate also had the serious drawback of being extremely flammable, a characteristic that made it a suitable substitute for gunpowder. It gradually decomposes, producing a flammable gas, becomes sticky and, at a late stage of decomposition, the film oozes a gooey fluid ultimately leading the substance to become dust. As this happened, the possibility of auto-ignition increased further.
Projection booth fires were not uncommon in the early decades of cinema. If a film managed to be exposed to too much heat while passing through the projector's film gate it resulted in audience deaths by flame, smoke or stampede.
Nitrate film stock was used in every major film production before about 1951. Many silent films only survived because they were printed to 16 mm film, which did not use a nitrate base. A report published by the United States Library of Congress in September 2013 states that 70 percent of all American silent feature films are lost.
Part of Barker's presentation showed him actually trying to separate the melting films from one another.
Barker's presentation also contained pictures from a live Beatles concert in Indianapolis in the 1960s.
His program also included newly discovered 8 mm footage of the 1959 Greensburg Centennial Parade and the sights and sounds of railroads in Decatur County in the 1970s.
Contact Bill Rethlake at 812-651-0876 or email bill.rethlake@greensburgdailynews.com
