Hello, Ken,
I find your paraphrase of Mike Spitz's statement interesting as whale
oil was the lubrication component of the binder system and not the
binder per se. Lubricants were still added to the polyester-polyurethane
binder system, when it was introduced.
While this is an interesting story and lubricant/binder compatibility
may be an issue, I have not been able to substantiate this in any of my
research.
The major whaling ban was passed in 1983, going into effect in 1986, so
whaling was prevalent through 1985, at least in Iceland as this history
shows.
http://www.whalemuseum.is/whaling-iceland/history-of-whaling/
SSS tape was manufactured prior to 1983. I have some Ampex 407 that I
purchased in 1982 that went sticky by about 1990 (or so).
However, the U.S. appears to have banned import of sperm whale oil in 1971.
http://k-12.pisd.edu/cyberweb/science/Whaling_History.htm
http://books.google.ca/books?id=GYCSW7LZn3sC&pg=PA338&lpg=PA338&dq=United+States+ban+on+sperm+whale+products&source=bl&ots=iqElPiGHNa&sig=G_GS42SO4enn9R8PA26giLx5KB8&hl=en&ei=ZYISTeHuC9mMnAeZ8eS3Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=19&ved=0CJwBEOgBMBI#v=onepage&q=United%20States%20ban%20on%20sperm%20whale%20products&f=false
I think 1971 is too early a date for manufacture of SSS tape, but
perhaps there were large reserves of the oil at the manufacturers?
I still think we're seeing a binder failure issue and not a lubrication
failure issue.
Cheers,
Richard
On 2010-12-22 5:19 PM, Ken Fritz wrote:
> This is a FWIW posting regarding the SSS problem and I'm sure
> many of you already know this.
>
> The owner of the only US tape manufacturing facility passed this on
> to me a year or so ago and I hope I'm forwarding the correct information.
>
> Whale oil was always used in the binder of tape until the ban on
> whale harvesting went into effect. We observed the ban while the
> Japanese didn't. We switched to a polyurethane base while the Japanese
> continued to use whale oil until they stopped making tape. I believe
> today's technology, regarding polyurethanes, has solved the problem
> but only time will tell.
>
> Merry Christmas all, Ken
--
Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
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