Re: [ARSCLIST] wire recordings - archival storage

[Michael Biel <mbiel@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've never had trouble with the post-war wire on Webster-Chicago type 
spools, because these all seem to be solid stainless steel.  The problem 
lies in earlier wire which is sometimes clad.  I have an odd wartime 
machine made by Brush for the Navy, VRW-1, that has the wire in a 
cartridge and it is impossible to keep the wire from breaking with even 
the slightest tension. 

And while we are on the subject of Illinois and wartime wire recorders, 
what has happened to the recorder and the wire that Marvin Camras (I 
think) played during his ARSC Chicago Conference presentation in 1993 
that had a 1944 recording of Marion Anderson she recorded in his Armour 
Research lab.  I have the talk on videotape. 

Oh, and Tracy, you're not any relation to Andre Popp are you?  He did 
some wonderful things with tape recorders under the guise of Elsa 
Popping and Her Pixieland Band in the 1956 award winning album Delirium 
In Hi-Fi. 

Mike Biel  mbiel@xxxxxxxxx 

Tracy Popp wrote:
> Dear ARSC list members:
>
> I have been doing research on archiving wire recordings for a project we are
> working on here at Univ. of Illinois. I have yet to find any  information
> about preferred archival storage of these types of recordings - storage
> orientation, preferred archival containers, etc. I have seen recommendations
> regarding storage environment temperature but nothing definitive on
> container or orientation.
>
>  I'd like to hear about how you and your institution approach archival
> storage of wire recordings and if you have any particular resource you've
> used to guide your decisions. Thank you in advance and I look forward to
> your responses!
>
> Best,
> Tracy Popp
> Graduate Student
> Univ. of Illinois
>
>
>