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Re: [ARSCLIST] Oxide flaking off tape from the 1950's
At 12:57 PM 2/4/2004 -0500, you wrote:
In a message dated 2/2/2004 1:04:07 AM Eastern Standard Time,
ArcLists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
I think there are many people on the list who can gently play tapes. I can
on Studer (A810 or A807) or Sony (APR-5003V) equipment. I've played tapes
dating back to a 1935 Carbonyl Iron tape, but while I've had to sweep up
after them, I've not encountered an early tape with oxide totally flaking
off. This is very interesting.
*******************
I have found reels of the cheap green boxed "Shamrock" brown oxide mylar
tape that shed oxide in sheets leaving clear base. That is probably why
it ended up in those boxes.
The oxide sheets just fell off as the tape was unwound; no bond to the
base at all. It would be very hard to salvage.
I have had less trouble with Shamrock and the other "white box" tapes of
the 60s than with some major brands. Kodak was in the audio tape market
briefly. They came to grief when many of their tapes had an unhappy
failing. A year or so after recording, the binder developed an affinity for
the base beneath it, the oxide tried to adhere to both top and bottom so
stuck to neither and peeled off in sheets.
Observing from a distance, it is no doubt interesting, but when it is your
own recording reduced to randomized flakes in the recorder case, the tears
are not of laughter. (Admittedly, forty years later the humor is again
evident.)
Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/