Since the culprit for SS is hydrolysis, which results from the addition of
moisture, and we bake a tape to desiccate it, shouldn't we assume that
moist storage is bad for tapes that get SS, and dry storage is good, as a
general proposition?
How about temperature extremes?
My experience is that for most tapes made prior to the SS era, tapes are
not that picky about storage conditions, within reason. I.e., in general,
they seem to have held up well through a big variety of storage conditions.
This discussion has dealt largely with troubled tapes. What are the
lessons learned applicable for regular tapes, if any?
Thanks,
John Haley
On Sat, Jan 30, 2016 at 10:09 PM, Richard L. Hess <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Hi, Tom,
>
> Steve Smolian's comment makes me think it doesn't have to be a separate
> plant, but perhaps a separate formula? Of course, shipping as discussed
> does come into play.
>
> I wonder what the different climates are that Marie's tapes have been
> stored in...
>
> I know many of the tapes I receive from Canada have been stored in very
> humid locations. I rescued some tapes from a Toronto basement sixteen years
> ago or so where I practically slipped on my rear in the slick mud on the
> floor. My wife's office is in an old house where the basement gets wet with
> each rain. It's an historic old house and she works for the Historical
> Society that owns it.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
>
> On 1/29/2016 3:52 PM, Tom Fine wrote:
> ...>
>
>> Richard, your theory about different formulas for Commonwealth
>> Ampex-branded tapes may well be true, but you'd need to suss out for
>> sure where all that tape was manufactured. I'm not aware of any Ampex
>> plant except Opelika AL (formerly Orradio Industries). For that matter,
>> did 3M have tape-making plants other than in Minnesota? I always thought
>> that Ampex and 3M tapes were made in USA; Sony, Maxell, TDK and maybe
>> Memorex were made in Japan; BASF was made in Germany and Agfa was made
>> in Germany and Holland. As I understand it, there was a Russian tape
>> manufacturer in the Cold War era, but Soviet and Eastern Bloc recordists
>> also bought a lot of Agfa and BASF tape.
>>
>>
> --
> Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
> Aurora, Ontario, Canada 647 479 2800
> http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
>
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