We had an old theater called The Crown, and Gerrard and Broadview in Toronto. In 1948 I went to the Saturday Matinee = 2 republic serials, a main feature and 'T

We had an old theater called The Crown, and Gerrard and Broadview in Toronto. In 1948 I went to the Saturday Matinee = 2 republic serials, a main feature and 'The Eyes and Ears of the World' = Pathe News every week. The Crown is long gone = Vietnamese market now. It was built in the silent era when they had nitro cellulose film. You have to nitrate cellulose highly, dissolve in acetone and create the film via evaporation and light heating. Nitro cellulose = gun cotton = a high explosive. So the projector had a long light path to reduce the danger of film combustion and they also built the projection rooms with steel walls with asbestos lining. Back in the teens/twenties there were a number of projection room fires and many deaths - the film did not explode, but once initiated decomposed at a high rate with great heat and dense high volume black smoke. Film changed to safe film in the 20's, but the laws mandate the old vaults due to the large number of prints done the old way. There were a number of archive fires back then. Some rabbit holery for you... https://www.google.com/search?q=projection+room+fire+nitro+cellulose&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA924CA924&oq=projection+room+fire+nitro+cellulose&aqs=chrome..69i57.15886j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=projection+room+fire+nitro+c...