Frozen film and Comic Radiation

**Jeffrey Scott** · 14-Nov-2004, 20:39

I'd be more concerned about tragic radiation! Stock away, for the most part you may have to print through the base fog. Has anybody used antifog tablets with film?

**Michael S. Briggs** · 14-Nov-2004, 20:52

At ground level, the bulk of the cosmic rays are muons. Muons are highly penetrating particles that are difficult to absorb with shielding, requiring tens of meters of material. Assuming that you don't happen to have a mine to store your film in, locating the freezer at lower altitudes will help because of the increased air mass.

Terrestial radiation from Potassium-40, Uranium and Thorium and their daughters consists of many types: alpha particles, x-rays, gamma-rays and radon gas. Keeping the freezer airtight will keep reduce the radiation from decays of radon atoms. The metal walls of the freezer will block the alphas. A few mm of lead will block the x-rays and most of the gammas.

Lead is one of the best shielding materials for x-rays and gamma-rays because of its high atomic number. However, it can be just as effective and cheaper to use a larger mass of some cheaper material such as steel, dirt, water, etc.

The amount of cosmic radiation depends on lattitude and altitude -- low latitudes and altitudes having less cosmic radiation. The amount of terrestial radiation depends on geography and the materials used to build a building. There are some maps at http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/radon/DDS-9.html.

My opinion is not to bother with this. Some types of B+W film will be available for many years into the future. If there is a particular variety that you really like, then stockpile it if the manufacturer announces the end of its production. Of course, if you want a lot of film you might have to buy fast. One thing to say in Kodak's favor is that Kodak tends to announce the end of production of a film well in advance.

**Gary Gibson** · 14-Nov-2004, 21:38

As I understand it Michael Smith is most concerned to protect his Azo and Super XX from "Cosmic Life Energy" I think using some special mesh constrcution around his 200 sq ft freezer/bunker.

http://largeformatphotography.info/lfforum/topic/497656.html

He has been somewhat coy about explaining this further, but a google search brings up the work of Wilhelm Reich

http://energy-healing.7gen.com/webshop/item-full.jsp?ASIN=0962185582

http://www.orgonelab.org/energyinspace.htm

and the Maharishi Yogi (much beloved of John Lennon)

http://home.swipnet.se/sonoloco10/mahesh/mahesh.html

So probably a buried freezer with at least an 8" covering of solid garlic combined with regular cleansing of your auras may be the best protection.

**Frank Petronio** · 14-Nov-2004, 22:31

As for the salt mines near Rochester, about ten years a huge area of the country side simply collapsed near Geneseo - six to ten feet - taking out major roads and bridges. Salt mines were said to be the culprit, along with a major earthquake fault running through Upstate New York. Send your film to the MIDDLE of the continent.

**John Cook** · 15-Nov-2004, 04:00

Kodak has several online tidbits about film storage. Some pertain to motion picture film, which should also be useful for sheet film.

Their general advice seems to be that low speed conventional emulsion (not T-Max nor Delta) films store best. But even with these (frozen) you can't count on more than five years. After that, you need to run tests before using the film to see to what extent the increased fog will be a problem.

Here is just one of these documents. A web search will find many more.

http://www.kodak.com/cluster/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/e30/e30Contents.shtml

**Graeme Hird** · 15-Nov-2004, 04:50

Store your film some place close to where they shoot those terrible US sitcoms. Their film never seems to be fogged and there is certainly very little comedy coming out of the studios. Perhaps they've discovered a comic radiation shield (a "black comedy" hole?) that they're keeping secret from the rest of us.

(Oh, and don't expose your film to this thread - we're ALL comics here .....)

More seriously, the cosmic radiation that reaches the Earth's surface won't affect the emulsion of your film.