Re: [ARSCLIST] MAGNA-REEL Sound Recording Tape

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

And then there's always the mold that comes with moisture, which I've seen literally eat away old 
Scotch 111 acetate tape. So here's the typical options for typical old tapes stored in typical old 
private collection -- keep those tapes in the cold/moist/likely moldy garage or basement or keep 
those tapes in the hot attic. Basement -- they can get eaten away and/or warp.  Attic -- they warp 
and might get so brittle that they won't play or get something akin to lost lubricant.

Yeah, folks, if you have something valuable to you or to posterity on reels, for heaven's sake 
transfer the darn thing and till your digital garden regularly!

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 9:25 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] MAGNA-REEL Sound Recording Tape


> At 08:32 PM 9/18/2006, steven c wrote:
>
> > Thus the problem would appear to be to decide whether the tape should
> > be baked...or frozen...
>
> Well, you never bake acetate tapes.
>
> Freezing tapes is also problematic, but hopefully we'll know more about that in a year or so.
>
> Theoretically, freezing acetate tapes (WHICH IS NOT RECOMMENDED AT THIS POINT) is the only known 
> way to preserver them, but freezing tape is supposed to do irreparable damage to the tapes.
>
> I believe this is what is known as a Catch-22. So, we need to find out how bad the freezing really 
> is for acetate and polyester tapes.
>
> Moisture is the big culprit in all the degradation, as far as I know, with heat being second. In 
> fact, within reason, heat is a non-issue with polyester-based polyester-polyurethane binders. It's 
> moisture that kills. Of course, there is more available moisture at higher temperatures.
>
> 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.