Re: [ARSCLIST] Acetate tape discolours tape box

[David Seubert <seubert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Richard, I wouldn't say that they don't work with tape, it's more that 
they are calibrated for film. I'm pretty sure that somebody from IPI is 
on this list (Doug Nishimura?) so maybe they could chime in. The AD 
strips just detect free acidity and they will detect free acidity in a 
tape box just as well as they will in film or in a jar of pickles. What 
makes them useful for film is the color change will tell you the point 
at which the decay becomes autocatalytic so you can plan appropriately 
and deal with the worst stuff first and ignore (or freeze or use 
molecular sieves with) the films with mild symptoms.

It would be nice to know if the colors were meaningful for tape, but I'm 
not sure what it would tell us. Film has big problems from the 
relatively small amounts of shrinkage found in advanced VS but I've 
never seen (smelled?) VS in tape that was bad enough to affect playback.

David

Richard L. Hess wrote:

> I have used the A-D strips and have a package, but the general consensus 
> is that they do not work reliably on tapes. I don't recall all of the 
> details that others have observed and someday I will pursue this with 
> IPI, but their focus is film.