[ARSCLIST] Audio tape crystals

["Richard L. Hess" <ArcLists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

This is the latest joy I'd like to share with you all.

http://www.richardhess.com/tape/tape_crystal.jpg

I just received a 3" reel of 1/4" tape from one of my clients and 
there were a few whitish "crystals" on it. The one in the photo is 
about 42 mils across--th overall top-to-bottom of the photo is about 
50 mils (0.05 inches). There are several others, but this is the 
largest. I did a little scratching at the surface as you can see from 
the photo.

This tape had been stored in Trinidad and now Beatty Nevada inside a 
mobile home.

Anyone have any thoughts about this and what damage it might be doing 
to the tape and what would be the procedure for unwinding it.

In case you are interested, the photo chain was an old AO-Spencer 
microscope with a 3.2X objective and a 10x eyepiece lens and a Nikon 
D100 on a microscope mount. The illumination was from a 5W Luxeon LED 
in a Surefire L4 flashlight. The JPEG is a 1/4 linear (1/16 area) 
reduction of the original raw file.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard L. Hess                   richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       http://www.richardhess.com/
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm