[SML] Taiwan water park explosion

[e-mail frank.wood95]

On 1 July 2015 at 00:01, Jerry Durand via Stagecraft
<stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

>
> Oh, and regular smokeless powder?  Single base stuff is nitrocellulose (gun
> cotton) with stabilizers and graphite powder to reduce static.  When it
> first came into use it didn't have the stabilizers in it and could go off
> because it was Tuesday.  This is the same stuff old movie film was made of,
> model airplane dope, and also ping pong balls.  Really!

Very much so! In the days of nitrate film, extreme fire precautions
were taken in theatres which were permitted to use it. All the
projectors had fire traps around the gate.

In the one nitrate theatre at Ealing Studios there were fire detectors
all over the projector. When the alarm went off, steel fire shutters
dropped over the projection ports. The projectionist evacuated the
booth at a run, carefully shutting the door behind him. Just by the
door was a big, red handle, which he then pulled. This discharged SIX
cylinders of CO2 into the booth!


-- 
Frank Wood