Tweet novice help with vintage 40s commercial film degradation

I'm new here on the forum and have very little experience with vintage prints. But I have purchased and collected several dozen over the years at estate sales and flea markets, etc.

I have come across a film produced by Boeing in 1946 about their aircraft which seems like it may be an important find to aviation history. It's got condition problems, shrinkage, warping.

Does anyone here have any experience in having such a film "restored" or transferred digitally? The film is on a large 15-inch reel in 16mm black and white, and may be as long as 50 minutes but I'm uncertain, as playing the entire film is risky due to its fragility and condition. I was wondering about general cost, if this might be worth preserving. Also there may be copyright issues, as the company is still in business obviously.

Do I even have a right to have this copied or digitized? would it be expensive? does the reel itself have any value in this deteriorating state? or is this a goner?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm new here on the forum and have very little experience with vintage prints. But I have purchased and collected several dozen over the years at estate sales and flea markets, etc.

I have come across a film produced by Boeing in 1946 about their aircraft which seems like it may be an important find to aviation history. It's got condition problems, shrinkage, warping.

Does anyone here have any experience in having such a film "restored" or transferred digitally? The film is on a large 15-inch reel in 16mm black and white, and may be as long as 50 minutes but I'm uncertain, as playing the entire film is risky due to its fragility and condition. I was wondering about general cost, if this might be worth preserving. Also there may be copyright issues, as the company is still in business obviously.

Do I even have a right to have this copied or digitized? would it be expensive? does the reel itself have any value in this deteriorating state? or is this a goner?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Someone will likely give better and more detailed advice, but since I'm here... It may have value as a historical artifact, but monetarily I doubt it has much if any. Generally, industrial films don't fetch any great sum of money and I've gotten a couple for nothing. First thing is to see if anyone else has the complete film, as there was certainly more than one copy printed. As for copyright, it's easy enough to see if it was copyrighted and renewed (it does have a title, doesn't it?). If the film doesn't smell from vinegar, I wouldn't junk it just yet. You might look to donate it to someone who collects film ephemera.

I'm new here on the forum and have very little experience with vintage prints. But I have purchased and collected several dozen over the years at estate sales and flea markets, etc.

I have come across a film produced by Boeing in 1946 about their aircraft which seems like it may be an important find to aviation history. It's got condition problems, shrinkage, warping.

Does anyone here have any experience in having such a film "restored" or transferred digitally? The film is on a large 15-inch reel in 16mm black and white, and may be as long as 50 minutes but I'm uncertain, as playing the entire film is risky due to its fragility and condition. I was wondering about general cost, if this might be worth preserving. Also there may be copyright issues, as the company is still in business obviously.

Do I even have a right to have this copied or digitized? would it be expensive? does the reel itself have any value in this deteriorating state? or is this a goner?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mndean's advice is good - don't do anything until you determine if it's already been preserved elsewhere. If you find you need it transferred to video, I'd recommend the good folks at CinePost:

http://www.posthouse.com/

They were able to transfer for me a 16mm reversal film from the late 30s which suffered from vinegar syndrome, warpage, shrinkage, and emulsion which was heavily damaged. It was a one-of-a-kind film which could not be projected and I was unsure could even be run through a sprocketless telecine. The results truly shocked me as to how watchable this damaged film could be.

Derek