Mondo Knows Facts
Old film can decay into vinegar
Acetate stock releases acetic acid as it breaks down over time Acetate safety film slowly reacts with moisture and gives off acetic acid, which smells like vinegar and signals that the plastic is breaking down. The film shrinks, warps and eventually becomes brittle. Archives slow the process with cold storage and dry conditions, and copy threatened titles before they are lost. It sits in Mondo's movies & tv collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
The Prelinger Archives collects everyday filmIts stock footage shows streets, work and travel rather than starsArchives keep projectors for long dead formatsA print in 9.5mm or 28mm is unplayable without a machine built for itDigital masters need copying every few yearsDrives fail and file formats go obsolete, so archives rewrite their holdingsSafety film replaced nitrate in the 1950sAcetate stock burned slowly, though it decayed into vinegar over timeThe Academy keeps its own film archiveIts collection holds thousands of titles for preservation and studyThe registry protects home movies and newsreelsNewsreels, adverts and family films sit alongside studio features
🎬 Movies & TVfact 140 of 200
← → to keep reading, or swipe
Tags: preservation, chemistry, archives
Old film can decay into vinegar: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Acetate stock releases acetic acid as it breaks down over time. The figure is taken from George Eastman Museum, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a movies & tv fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Movies & TV shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.