Another example of the horrors of Tenite plastic film reels, this one a particularly disgusting warped Super8 film reel from 1968. We’ve never seen a Super8 Tenite reel, and rarely any as late as 1968. They tend to be found among late 1950s and early to mid-1960s reels that come across our film bench.
Tenite was developed by George Eastman’s company in Tennessee, Eastman Chemical, making it from softwoods. See their publication on how outdoor Tenite plastic products hold up to weathering: https://www.eastman.com/content/dam/eastman/corporate/en/literature/p/pp104.pdf
George needed plenty of sources of plastics to use in his little film business, Eastman Kodak. See https://www.eastman.com/en/who-we-are/history/timeline. It was used in all kinds of applications:
According to Wikipedia’s entry, it can develop surface mold, but that statement is not cited as to source. We used to refer to these reels as “moldy” when we ran across them, but a mycologist on campus here looked at a sample under a microscope and told us it was not a mold. The reels have a slick feel to them, rather like a bar of soap.
There are a lot of Tenite plastic items out in the world that have not deteriorated like these film reels do, so perhaps the offgassing of cellulose acetate film is contributing to the deterioration of the plastic. About half the time we see these reels, the film on them is cupped, buckled, and brittle, and sometimes the film is discolored with blue spots. So is the reel ruining the film? Or is the film ruining the reel? All you scientists with an interest in film, 20th-century popular culture, chemicals, and chicken/egg questions, start looking into this for us, won’t you? We want to know more.
