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Good morning Richard, That's what I needed: a kick in the memory cells! The tape to which I referred was indeed cellulose acetate. Best, Shiffy On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 4:33 AM, Michael Biel <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Art Shifrin wrote: > >> Years ago I transferred some I.G. Farben paper tape that had been recorded >> in 1944. It broke frequently while running @ typical 'modern' tensions. >> It >> was self-evidently more brittle than Brush & 3M paper samples with which >> I've worked. >> >> >> > I have received an email back from THE Magnetophon expert, Friedrich Engel, > restating to me the answer I already knew:: the Germans did not make paper > tape. Here is his answer: > > >> Apart from Fritz Pfleumer's experimental tapes on paper base (trade name > of the paper type was Pergamyn), there was no production of paper tape in > Germany. Plastics started with cellulose acetate, then came polivinyl > chloride, then, in the late 1950ies, polyester. > > >> 3M as well Japanese producers (and, maybe, a small Austrian company) > after WW II started with paper tape, all types very short-living. > > >> The first tapes on cellulose acetate, coated with carbonyl iron, made > between about 1933 and 1935, suffered from poor experience with these > material in the Ludwigshafen plant (... why did'nt they ask the I.G. Faren > colleagues at Agfa Wolfen works? ...), so these tapes indeed are very > brittle today. Richard Hess, years ago, asked me about a sample of grey tape > he found in Jack Mullins collection, which turned out to be carbonyl iron > tape (visiting Jack Mullin in 1987 he showed me this tape!). R.H. apparently > was able to play back the tape, but, if I remember correctly, he had some > problems with breaks and ruptures. << >