Re: [ARSCLIST] Acetate tape discolours tape box

[Bev Lambert <BevLambert@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Not a dumb question if you havent been studying the preservation of film
and tape.  
  The tapes that get "vinegar syndrome" dont start out that way. They
are on an acetate base and this means that after a period of time, it
can be 40 years, if kept in good conditions -ie not too hot or damp -
they start to deteriorate and one of the chemical results is the
offgassing off acetic acid, which smells like vinegar.  Once started the
chemical reaction is autocatalytic -feeds on itself and the stuff
degrades faster and faster.  You can slow it down by storing the tapes
in cold conditions -refrigeration, but you cant stop it.  You can absorb
some of the gas with molecular absorbers (available from Kodak), which
will help stabilize the tapes till you can copy them onto something more
stable -like a polyester base &/or digitize.  
  Besides being a threat to the health of your sound collection, its a
health hazard.  The gas becomes more and more pungent and the acid
stronger -it'll burn out your mucous membranes if you keep inhaling it,
as well as giving you a terrible headache. Repeated exposures are
cumulative and not reversible.  So, if you have anything left to listen
to on those degraded, brittle, curly, broken tapes, you might not hear
it very well anyway.

>>> tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 10/17/2006 11:11 AM >>>
Perhaps a dumb question here -- what does the vinegar syndrome do to
the tape? I've had no problems 
playing dozens of vinegar-smelling tapes over the years. Aside from
being typical old acetate (ie 
brittle and easy to break and more likely than not to be curled on the
edges), they don't seem any 
different from non-vinegar. I've come across many a box that looks like
this, but for bigger reels.

Are there tape types more likely to go vinegar than others? For
instance, it seems like most Scotch 
111 reels, if they're old enough, smell at least vaguely like vinegar,
whereas it seems less 
prevalent in AudioTape from the same era.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 9:21 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Acetate tape discolours tape box


> In a message dated 10/17/2006 8:50:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> cpeterso@xxxxxxxxx writes:
> Wow!  What a compelling picture.  There are a number of companies
that
> make archival boxes specially designed to absorb offgasses, but I've
> never seen such a visually strong argument for using them before.
> ********************
>
> "I recently came across a 3-inch reel of acetate tape, not in its
original
> box, that showed the following pattern in the box. I recently came
across a
> 3-inch reel of acetate tape, not in its original box, that showed the
following
> pattern in the box."
>
> I've seen this before, but only on the 3" reels of this type in the
"tape
> correspondence" boxes. I noticed it years ago, when the tapes were
relatively
> new. Can you smell any acetic acid on the tape or box?
>
>>From using these tapes, usually sold in poly bags without boxes, in
the days
> before cassettes, I remember that they had a distinctive smell when
new. The
> boxes were sold separately, unfolded, so a new one could be used when
the tapes
> were reused. I haven't seen this effect on name brand tapes, even the
Kodak
> tapes that smell strongly of vinegar (and always have).
>
> One may need to do so some chemical analysis before drawing
conclusions. It
> seems strange that a gas like the acid vapor would produce such a
sharp image
> of the reel instead of diffusing throughout the box. Perhaps a larger
molecule
> is responsible for the staining.
>
> Mike Csontos