Re: [ARSCLIST] Question Regarding the Preservation of Acetate Records

[Eric Jacobs <ericj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob,

Your first line of defense is to digitize what you have ASAP - that 
particularly disk is in far too much danger of being lost altogether.

Your second line of defense is proper storage, which will significantly
slow down - but not stop - the deterioration.  Proper storage includes
removing any palmitic acid (only if possible without losing any laminate),
keeping the disc in a climate controlled space, with air circulation,
and keeping the disc in an acid-free envelope/sleeve.  Also - and I 
cannot emphasize this enough - handle the acetates with gloves.  The
acid in finger prints will initiate palmitic acid formation.  Many of
the 16-inch acetates that I work with have finger prints dating back
to when they were originally played on the air - and the PA that forms
on the finger prints, once removed, leaves an audible imprint.  PA is
autocatalytic (once formed, the deterioration accelerates) - so you 
definitely will want to clean and resleeve any of your discs with PA, 
flaking or not.


Eric Jacobs

The Audio Archive
tel: 408.221.2128
fax: 408.549.9867
mailto:EricJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Bob Conrad
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 4:30 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Question Regarding the Preservation of Acetate
Records


I have recently acquired a large collection of 16" radio broadcast 
acetate transcription discs dating from the late 1930s to the early 
1940s. While most are in excellent + condition, there are a few Sinatra 
broadcasts from 1943 that are beginning to flake around the edges. Two 
of these disks are pretty bad and the flaking has actually reached the 
grooves.

Is there any possible way to stop these discs from flaking? Is there a 
spray that can be applied, or any sort of technique that will save these 
transcriptions from complete deterioration?

Thanks for your help and assistance.

Bob Conrad
e-mail: bob618@xxxxxxxxx