[78-L] Estimated Survival of Shellac 78s in 2109??

[Michael Biel]

Many of the South East Asia archives have extraordinary problems if they
do not have atmospheric controls like you do.  I heard some horror
stories at the SEAPAVA and IASA conferences in Canberra and Singapore I
attended.  But shelved tapes are not automatically remaining playable
just because they are not being used.  If any of the acetate base tape
stock is going to get vinegar syndrome, it can still happen.  If your
backcoated mylar tape is of a batch that will get stick shed syndrome,
it can still happen.  

There are still some professional open reel machines being manufactured,
some pro and consumer grade audio cassette machines, and consumer grade
VHS players being made as part of DVD combo units.  You may have to go
outside India, but they are there -- but will not be there within
another 5 years.  

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  


From: umashankar <umashanks at yahoo.com>

> i work in an archives here in india (hot and dry, hot and humid and extremely cold for a very short while) and i can tell you this. i have reel tapes going back to 1960s with no detectable loss. audio cassettes from 1980s like new. and vhs cassettes look like they will outlast them all. the secret? they are not played except to make copies once or twice in their lifetimes, and now for digitisation. and they have been kept and temperature and humidity controlled space since 1982.
 
> my real ploblem is the players. the reel recorder is 15 years old. my vhs and and audio cassette players are even older. and there are no replacements!

 
From: Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com>
>> But your last question, about how much time we have to get the 78s
 re-recorded, is opposite from what past history has shown.  Every
medium
 that has been used to re-record 78s has been proven to have a shorter
 life than the original 78s.  Tape is doomed.  Digital is repeatedly
made
 obsolete. Digital is useful only as a convenience and as a distribution
 means to replicate numerous copies so that maybe some of them will
 survive.    
 
 Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com