I spent my two hours inspecting a single reel of film and doing some additional reading on film inspections. I was going to take some time to do an inventory of all of the films in the Westinghouse collection but both of the cabinets, in which the films have been stored, were locked rendering the material therein inaccessible.
The films that I have inspected thus far have exhibited similar degrees of deterioration. So far I have not discovered any vinegar syndrome, although I thoroughly expect to come across it at some point because the films seem to have been neglected for so many years. At this point, I have only found evidence of color fading. Several films have the telltale signs of color fading, which manifests itself in hues of pink and magenta.
I do have one question that is olfactory in nature. While I have yet to deal with the sour scent of acetic acid, I have noticed a rather distinctive chemical aroma associated with the three films that I have inspected up to this point. Does an intense chemical (not vinegary at all…more medicine-like in nature) odor indicate some early stage of film deterioration or is it just the byproduct of motion picture processing?
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