Re: [ARSCLIST] vinegar reel to reel - is it safe to play?

["Marie O'Connell" <azile50@xxxxxxxxx>]

Taken from here, 1963 -
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/issue_pdf/backmatter_pdf/142/3590.pdf


Thoughts to buy tape by

There is a new magnetic tape. Intended for those who record

sound for a living instead of just for fun, it is now coming into

stock at electronics supply houses. These dealers, however,

consider it none of their business whether the tape is needed

for fun, profit, or the general betterment of the human race.

There are two main points of novelty:

1. We suspend our iron oxide needles in a new binder, which

is adaptable only to our highly proprietary and unbeatably

clean and uniform method of manufacturing sound tape.

Excellent as the generally used poly(vinyl chloride) may be

for the purpose, our binder seems not only to age with demonstrably

more grace but it forms a smoother top surface

(which is widely known to reduce intermodulation distortion,

for reasons never wholly understood). The needles do not

aggregate in it in the usual wood-grain-like pattern, nor do

they get battered and fractured in the attempt at homogeneity

of distribution. Therefore print-through measures a whole 55

db down from the recorded signal in the standard test, and this

in turn greatly extends the time between periodic rewindings

that tape-recordings should get.

2. The support is not the super-strength kind but cellulose

triacetate, treated to make it stronger than triacetate has any

business being. Amateur recordists generally don't realize

when they buy super-strength that the low-tension equipment

used in the home never requires it, though it costs something

in audio uniformity and money. Professionals with their hightension

equipment, on the other hand, have long known that

in case of trouble, a clean break is instantly apparent, remediable,

and preferable to the treacherous stretch-over 70%

before breaking-of the super-strength stuff. (Our treated triacetate

stretches no more than 0.5 %. We trademark it DUROL

Base.)

Didn't you know we made magnetic tape ? Ask for EASTMAN Type

A303. (Type A304 has a thicker coating for higher output with less

amplifier gain and its attendant noise. It is recommended only for
commercial recording of originals on adjustable-bias equipment.)


Got to love their claims!

Cheers
Marie


On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 9:09 AM, Michael Biel <mbiel@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: "Frances, Melodie" <mfrances@xxxxxxx>
> > We have some reel to reel, probably early 60s with a strong vinegar
> > smell and some very visible cupping.
>
> Can we have the brand and type data for this tape if you know it?  And
> it should be noted that this tape should be kept away from all other
> tape and the machines fully cleaned after playing it.
>
> Mike Biel  mbiel@xxxxxxxxx
>