"Richard L. Hess" wrote:
(1) Some reels of tape were shipped in plastic bags, some users
re-used the plastic bags inside the boxes. I recently found one of
four reels of Kodak tapes recording oral history interviews with old
Shakers (a now non-existent religious sect) had enough acetic acid
inside the plastic bag to cause my eyes to water and almost had me
leaving my studio. It played fine, but clearly some breakdown
products were accumulating in the semi-sealed plastic bag without any
opportunity to be buffered (see below). We had an extensive
discussion of this on the ARSC list and it seems that many people are
wary of Kodak tape.
Gilles St. Laurent, recording engineer at the National Library of Canada (or whatever it's now called), spoke to CAPS a few years ago and reported that plastic bags used as protection for tape reels were a known problem, and didn't refer to Kodak tapes (which are considered problematic by 99.9% of the world..I seem to be the only person who's never had a bad reel of the stuff). I avoid plastic bags inside tape boxes and inside record jackets....even the expensive plastic-lined record sleeves we bought in the 60s are failing, leaving discs exposed to what remains of the glue used at the time. The Angel sleeves seem to be holding up, so far.
dl