An update on Vinegar Syndrome in audio tapes. More anecdotal evidence that
helps support the well-known rule of storing film in vented cans.
I received four reels of Kodak sound recording tape that were recorded in
1962 and 1963. All are Triacetate backing. Two are 1.0 mil on 5-inch reels
and two are 1.5 mil on 7-inch reels.
All of the reels were very loosely wound. The two 7-inch reels were in
plastic bags inside their boxes. One of them reeked of vinegar when I
opened it and when I rewound it. I had to move away from the prep machine
during initial rewind.
It did not seem to suffer from any of the loss-of-lubricant we've started
to see in Sony reel-to-reel tapes and 3M dictation cassettes (among
others).
The outside of the tape pack could be easily depressed 1/4 to 3/8 of an
inch, the pack was so loose. I wonder if that much material was lost? The
tape still played fine and appeared dimensionally stable, but this is as
far gone as any I have seen judging from the odor.
I have never seen this before with tapes stored in the more usual
cardboard boxes without being sealed in a bag. Doug Nishimura of IPI has
more examples than I, but I am concerned that we're going to start to see
significant degradation of acetate-based tapes. The risk of this tape is
growing, IMHO.
I'm glad these are getting transferred. They are interviews with people
who were at one of the Shaker communities in the early 1900s.
Apologies for the cross posting. I'm not looking to get into a major
discussion about this -- just a heads up for those who are keeping track
of at-risk media. Probably if we do discuss it, it should be on AMIA-L as
that is where most of the knowledgeable VS people reside (due to the issue
surfacing in film archives a bit more than in tape archives). If you are
interested in the list go to http://www.amianet.org/amial/amial.html
Regards,
Richard
Richard L. Hess email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Vignettes Media web:
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
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