Film reaction in Microwave oven

Don't ask me why... but this came up the other night in a

conversation and it got me wondering.

 

Have you ever put a compact disc in the microwave for a few

seconds? All of the metallic particles in it short out and crack

making this kind of odd pattern inside the resin (Kids... please

don't try this at home - lol)

 

Anyway - I was wondering if the same thing might happen to the

silver particles in B&W film if you 'nuked' it for a few seconds

(just a few). Would the silver in it short itself out and do

anything interesting (other than smell bad.)

I wanted to ask opinions on this first because I was a little

concerned about adverse reactions, toxic fumes, etc.

But I thought it might create an interesting effect if it reacted

like a cd did.

 

I know it sounds crazy.. but you never know until you try.

 

Anybody have any ideas on this?(Besides having myself commited to

the local insane asylum) - lol

 

-David

Sounds like an interesting experiment!

heh.....could you borrow a video recorder and post the results when you finally do it...........

David,

 

<p>Hate to rain on your parade, but I've done a similar experiment in the past, to see if a roll of expired colour film was sensitive to microwave radiation. Unfortunately, 30 seconds had no effect on the film whatsoever. Mind you, it was still in a metal canister, so your milage may vary with rollfilm or bulkload plastic canisters.

 

<p>The higher ammount of silver in B&W film might give you a different result though. If anything cool happens, be sure to post pics!

 

<p>Jordan R. Urie

I didn't expect to see a "what if" question here...thought someone had actually nuked their film by accident! If you are going to try this, you might want to take the film out of the metal cannister (or use a plastic cannister, or 120 film) or else you'll get some real fireworks!

 

So, are you going to expose before or after you nuke?

 

I'm very glad this wasn't posted on the "Weddings and social event" forum (which is what I initially saw when scanning the "unified forum" view!

 

Good luck, and let us know when you do this (so I can hide under a table...duck and cover!)

Elemental (pure) silver is a metal, but film contains silver halides (mostly silver iodide) which are a salt. Nuke it long enough the gelatin in the emulsion might start to buckle or bubble.

I nuke wet B&W test strips sometimes to dry them. There's no arcing.

A. Adams said he dried some test prints for dry down effect.

Is there any truth in the story about the American woman putting her wet poodle in a microwave oven to dry it out?

 

Sean.

Don't know about the poodle but I dry my socks out in the microwave.

Paul,

 

Remind me to never come over your house and have microwave popcorn.

Bit off topic but sounds interesting. Maybe if we did the popcorn first.

 

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/cfsdays/heatsock.htm">Microwave heat sock

recipe</a>

A few years back, I nuked a roll of color film in a dark bag with no canister, for, I

think, a couple of minutes. Sadly, absolutely nothing happened. This was post-

exposure.

It's well known that microwaves don't cause arcing in developed prints as they do with tin foil, CDs, etc. Why? Because the silver in developed prints (or B&W negatives) isn't a continuous conductor large enough to act as a rectenna and concentrate microwave energy, as happens with foil, metal dishes, gold rims on teacups, and the reflective layer in a commercial replica CD.

I guess I'll try the rotisserie instead... lol

Just curious. If putting film in a microwave oven produces no visible effects, how is it that people swear airline metal detectors fog their film?

Metal detectors don't fog film (no matter what people swear). X-ray systems in airport security gates, however, can and sometimes do (especially foreign ones). People are simply mistaking one effect for the other.

 

Another year or two, and the walk-through gates might be capable of fogging your film -- there have been demonstrations of a very low powered x-ray reflectance imaging system that will allow a real-time image of the body beneath clothes -- and incidentally apply a low level of fog to any film carried on the person. No more stuffing the plastic bulk load cassettes in you coat pocket and walking through the metal detector to preserve your film!

For more than you want to know about microwaving of pets legends goto--

 

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/micropet.htm

 

and in a video documentary of Adams, he is shown drying a test print for evaluation of the effect of dry down on the image.

It might be useful to put wet negatives in a microwave oven if they could be dried quickly without warping. My quick, scientifically questionable, test of this method (performed while reading this post) reveals that, (1) there is no arcing, and (2) the negatives curled drastically, probably due to uneven drying. Try it yourself.

Please tell me this is covered in your homeowner's policy ;-) Let us know how it goes.

What if i blow dry the film?

You can blow-dry film. It dries in just a few minutes, but I don't recommend it as dust is usually a big problem.

Diana, Jim, what are you thinking? Sensible comments within the context of a discussion about dangerous science experiments? Are you trying to bring order from chaos? Were you raised by wolves?

 

Semi-seriously, tho', blow drying film tends to produce water spots. There are better ways to dry film. I prefer to suspend it diagonally, which encourages the water to gravitate toward the lowest edge and drip cleanly from a single corner. If dust is a problem in your darkroom try a recirculating air HEPA filter. Helped mine, which was in the laundry room. Took care of the dryer lint dust problem.

 

And now I'm locking this thread before someone suggests something really crazy, like blow drying wolves.