Myth of Heat exposing IR film

[Bertha Adamson <badamson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

When I was buying my outdated film yesterday, someone made a joke about taking
it out in the hot California sun.  I was puzzled until I realized he was
referring to the old myth about IR film recording heat and we had a little
discussion.  I explained that IR is a very broad spectrum of which film
records a small bit but I couldn't remember that it is near IR the film
records and far IR that produces heat until I got home and checked my references.

Anyway, he seemed sure that he was able to record heat with IR film many years
ago.  Now I don't know the subject so it very well could have been something
that emitted both near and far IR, thus the confusion.  But I wonder, was or
is there some special application, eg. military or scientific, that
incorporates some IR technology that has caused this confusion or is it just a
erroneous observation due to things like the "glow" of human skin on IR film
that makes people think heat?  It would be nice to have as much info
(ammunition) as possible to help debunk this myth.

Bertha

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