Re: [ARSCLIST] Fw: [ARSCLIST] Vinegar syndrome audio tapes

["Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 05:56 PM 1/19/2006, Tom Fine wrote:

> 4. I just recently encountered Audiotape reels with strong vinegar 
> smell. They had been stored in good conditions (Northeast US room 
> temperature) for a few decades. I was surprised by this because 
> previous vinegar tapes were more likely from damper places like 
> basements. The tapes played just fine and I transferred them. Good 
> thing they played because they had some content it would not be easy 
> to re-record.
>
> My least favorite syndromes are, in order: mold, sticky-shed, bad 
> splices, vinegar, edge curl/warp.

Tom,

The problem based on what we know from film is that VS is 
autocatalytic and once started will progress faster than one would like.

What I see from your comments about 111 (snipped) and Audiotape is 
that the process has started and we have a decade or two to get it 
all transferred if we want to - perhaps longer, probably not shorter 
than a decade. I think it's something people really need to think about.

Cheers,

Richard