[AV Media Matters] Transcript discs -- laquer chemistry

[Bob Savage <bsavage@stanford.edu>]

Hello, again,

Thanks for all of the great responses to my last question on transcript
discs!

I found this quote in a book by a BBC engineer:
"ACETATE ... (b) Direct-cut lacquer discs. At one time such discs
were made
of cellulose acetate on glass. The term is still used colloquially for the
celluloe nitrate on aluminium discs of today." [The Technique of the Sound
Studio, Alec Nisbett, Hastings House, New York: 1972 p. 507]

And yet I have not run across any referances to either the "vinegar
syndrome" or the autocombustability that these materials are
associated with
in film archives. So I am wondering if there is something different about
the manufacturing process that makes the transcript discs more
stable, or if
these are really the same materials. I am particularly perplexed by the
comment that cellulose acetate was replaced by cellulose nitrate,
because as
film bases the opposite is true (and for good reason!)

thanks again,

Bob

--
Bob Savage
Media Preservation Unit
Stanford University Libraries
bsavage@stanford.edu