Well, if anyone is curious, that film I picked up turned out to be DEAD, DEAD, DEAD. From the serial number I determined that it must have dated from 1972.(posted 8599 days ago)First experiment: Developed about 2 feet unexposed in D-76, 1:1, 12'. Base fog looked pretty serious--about 1 stop.
Second experiment: Bracketed 5 exposures, half-stop increments, of a Kodak gray scale, middle exposure would rate it at 200 (Kodak's rating for tungsten), developed for the recommended time of 10', D-76, 1:1, with 1 oz/quart of Edwal Liquid Orthazite anti-foggant. No base fog this time, that's for sure. No images either. Nothing. Absolutely clear except for the exposed leader which was slightly grey.
Third experiment: Cut off about 2 feet of film in roomlight, and put into straight D-76. In about three minutes it became moderately grey, maybe two stops past middle grey, probably would reach a full black by 8 minutes. I would say that rates this film as somewhat slower than fiber-based paper, an E.I. of about 0.5-2.0, maybe.
So, for my $15 expenditure, I learned some interesting things. I did some research on movie films and the effects of benzotriazole. I have some nice metal reels if I ever want to try spooling some film from movie-sized reels onto 100' reels for bulk loading. Not a total loss. That doesn't rule out trying some fresh XX at some point in the future, but nothing's coming from this batch. Anyone need about 390 feet of 35mm streamers for the Christmas tree? New Year's? How about some super slow film for photographing nuclear explosions?