I agree with Duane that we are beyond the use of household chemicals for cleaning discs. Every time I see the topic of cleaning discs raised on ARSClist, I am reminded that as archivists, when we clean discs, we are performing conservation treatments, regardless of our training. According to article VI of the "Code of Ethics of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works" (http://aic.stanford.edu/pubs/ethics.html):
"The conservation professional must strive to select methods and materials that, to the best of current knowledge, do not adversely affect cultural property or its future examination, scientific investigation, treatment, or function."
We should abide by these principles, even (especially) if we aren't conservators. I would argue that archivists have the same responsibility not to use household chemicals without having them tested first. With all due respect to collectors (who have rescued many recordings when the archival profession wasn't paying attention) household dishwashing detergent is not an acceptable way to clean recordings, especially when there are other, better options. Dawn and Ivory liquid probably contain harmless ingredients, but without assurances and testing, we shouldn't use them.
I can't speak for Duane's products, but any manufacturer that sells products to the archival community should provide full disclosure on what active and inactive ingredients are in the product and what testing has been done to ensure that these products will "not adversely affect cultural property."
As I have pointed out on this list before, the Library of Congress has created a recipe for a wonderful cleaning product that has been tested by their conservation scientists: http://www.loc.gov/preserv/care/record.html. Some archival supply firm should make this and sell it, since the main ingredient is difficult to obtain in small quantities.
David Seubert UCSB
Hi Aaron,
We've come a long way from the limited cleaning & residues left by using household detergents to clean phonograph records. We invite you to hear the difference safe & thorough cleaning affords.
Regards,
Duane Goldman
At 10:22 AM 5/18/2004 -0400, you wrote:I have been a collector for many years and have had some records that I have encountered that are visually perfect and still with successive cleanings, both manually and with a machine, the sound remains distorted and gritty sounding. This conditions persists with every alcohol based product I have encountered.
I took a copy of a record which suffers from this disease, NRISSTB,(no reason it should sound this bad) and I cleaned it with one tiny drop of dishwashing soap. I made sure to add ample water to it and cleaned it till no visible residue was on the disc. I then cleaned the surface again with a record cloth to remove any late arriving airborne residue. The results have been really amazing. These records now sound infinitely better than the ever did with alcohol based cleaners.
These dish products are designed to "cut grease" and as I understand it, a thin layer of oil can exist on LP's as a result of the stamping process itself. It is my belief that this oil coagulates with time and sits in the grooves attracting all kinds of contaminants and grit and particulate matter in general.
When the old lemon joy gets in there it seems to dissolve the oily residue and in the process let go of a lot of tiny noisy particles that have been resting there for decades...I have done this in the presence of other collectors who were horrified and then amazed by the procedure and the results.
Obviously, I suggest trying this first on a valueless, noisy record to see if what I am saying is true.
Has anyone else out there tried weird counter-intuitive "solutions" to record cleaning and if so what have been your results?
I am sure many ARSC people and all polymer chemists will tell me I am doing more harm than good in the long run but the immediate results are in some cases nothing less than dazzling in my experience.
BTW, this seems them most effective on records from the mid-60's and earlier, did the vinyl manufacturing process change after a certain point, thus using less oil or something like that when making LP's?
Sincerely,
Aaron (Don't try this at home kids) Levinson
------ h. duane goldman, ph.d. | P.O. Box 37066 St. Louis, MO 63141 lagniappe chem. ltd. | (314) 205 1388 voice/fax "for the sound you thought you bought" | http://discdoc.com