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Re: [ARSCLIST] Ampex 456 - tip of the iceberg...chemistry
At 08:36 PM 6/16/2006, Tom Fine wrote:
You know, there should be a special ARSC meeting
on this, maybe in conjunction with the AES.
I've proposed a paper to AES in SF this October
along these lines. Let's see if it's accepted.
Let's get the authors of these papers and books if they can be persuaded.
These are busy folks, but some are helping out.
Let's get some good Chem 101 professor to
explain all this in layman's terms and let's see
if some of the big holders of tapes with a lot
on the line (ie the record companies and such
large institutions as the LOC) can put up some
$$$ to fund some tape-specific research.
This is in process in Europe and the results
should be published next year - but the main focus has been on U-Matic video.
I also think if one asked in the context of
getting to the bottom of this, the folks that
Quantegy might share the recipes for the sticky
tapes (I understand they bought all of 3M's
recipes so they must have documentation on hand).
There may be process-related issues that were independent of the formulations.
I can't understand why, all these years after
this problem has been discovered, that there are all these questions.
I would think partially because the scope of it
hasn't been understood. The beginnings of any of
these things start out "you're the only one
experiencing these problems." Someone I know when
he was still in Hollywood put together a
coalition of post houses who were all told,
"you're the only one..." -- that problem was
fixed--I think it had to do with short life of VTR heads.
It seems like the answers are known but the dots aren't connected.
Pieces are known, but it is a very variable and
moving target. "Running Changes" happened.
They're not always admitted. For example (and I
don't know which videotape) it was presented at
AMIA in Austin last year by Benoît Thiébaut that
there were four different formulations of the
same manufacturer/model videotape. Some of these
are sticky, one is not, if I recall correctly.
Richard Hess has done the most dot connecting of
anyone who I know of who seems willing to share the information.
I'm sharing in the hopes other will share and
correct me. There are so many pieces. We still
may just need to use tried and true restoration
techniques like baking (and others) and get on
with transferring the stuff. I had a Philips
PM3214B oscilloscope from the mid-1970s and the
paint went sticky-gooey. I gave it away when I
collected my Tek scopes. The Philips also had
dirty switches. I had bought it new. I mention
the Philips scope as I think there is a tie-in
between the polyester-polyurethane binders that
were sold to Philips (or their subcontractor) for
painting and those sold for making tape binders.
We can give it a lot of fancy names, but I'm
preferring one name: DEGRADATION. The tapes are
degrading, plain and simple, in a multiplicity of ways.
I know some tape industry people say that storage
conditions are a worse degrader of tapes than
inherent vice ever will be. I agree that pertains
to tapes stored in attics, etc. We don't know the
storage history of the tape that started this
discussion in Norway, but it has spent its recent
life in the optimum storage conditions currently
recommended by the standards from AES, etc.
He's got a studio to run and he doesn't own a
chemistry lab. So it seems like there would be
vested interest of the owners of all these
valuable sticky tapes to step up and make the answers clearer.
It takes one person to rattle the cage. Henry
Wilhelm's model is not lost on me. I think at one
time, Henry was banned from the City of
Rochester, NY....or perhaps that's just an urban legend.
Maybe there's a political issue I'm not seeing?
There are many. Part of it is that, long term, it
may be more cost effective to NOT spend millions
researching the tapes and just transfer them.
Sure works for yours and my business model, but
whatever part of me likes pure science wants to
understand -- in the sense of really grock --
what is going on. I don't feel that I can do that
yet. Jim Wheeler once told me that when I run
tests on some reels of tape I'll know a lot more
about the reels of tape I ran the tests on. ...
transferring that knowledge to other tapes is a
big question due to storage history and manufacturing tolerances.
I think I need to go and keep reading Bhushan's
book. I'm in the lubrication chapter now.
Cheers,
Richard
Richard L. Hess email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.