Page 26 - 2015-03

VINEGAR SYNDROME - It’s still with us!

Mike Trickett

As advertised elsewhere in RD,
I have been doing quite a lot of
film transfer in recent times.
A recent transfer was some
quite old and quite smelly
16mm films from the 1930s.

I have copied quite a few reels
suffering from vinegar syn-
drome (VS) over time, they usu-
ally have the pronounced
vinegar smell and often accom-
panied by warping and buck-
ling. Sometimes the film has a
“soapy” feel about is when held
between the fingers.

With this film, it came a a bit of
a surprise to see the image on
the TV monitor gradually creep-
ing in from the corners and
eventually ending up as a circu-
lar image in the centre of the
screen.
On removing the film
from the gate area, I found
the aperture was full of a
white powdery substance
that had come off the film
during projection.
It took several stop, clean,
and restart sequences to be
able to transfer about one
hour of film. After compu-
ter editing and reassem-
bling of the film, the
on-screen picture was ac-
ceptable, excepting for the
streaking caused by the
26 REEL DEALS March 2016