[78-L] archiving and/or storing 78s

[Malcolm]

Hi, all -
About two weeks ago in my main archival space under the house (read: 
record storage room), which holds some 7000 78s, I noticed what looked 
like shaving cream on one of the banks of shelves. Turned out a massive 
fungus had infested the wall behind the records and had eaten the labels 
and sleeves off of around 500 of them. Totally destroyed them, it did. 
No recovery possible. I had to tear out the inside and outside walls, 
the insulation and the shelves, and bring in a disaster recovery team to 
treat the fungus, kill any rogue spores and dehumidify the room and the 
rest of the records. Took about a week but it's all gone now, along with 
a tenth of my collection. Mostly 1920s jazz and dance band sides. Aside 
from some Gennett labels most of the rare material survived quite 
handily. BUT, now that I have new walls and soon a new set of shelves, I 
have to attempt a more steady-state temperature and humidity regimen.
That's basically why I was asking about a median temp/humidity to 
maintain the room at. Armed with naught but a temp/humidity gauge and a 
30 pint dehumidifier - not to mention a whole bunch of new sleeves - I 
am now set to do battle with the elements!
When I saw the fungus the first time I coulda plotzed. The damn thing 
was mere inches from getting upstairs into the house walls proper and 
that would have been more than a disaster. I am counting all my 
remaining 6500 blessings regularly.
And, no, the fungus was not of the "house eating" variety (look it up); 
fortunately it was more benign than that.
And, no, my home insurance does not cover this type of thing. It was all 
out-of-pocket, which is now all out-of-money!
Ah, well, live and learn. And keep counting.
Mal

*******

On 6/24/2017 4:31 PM, David Lennick wrote:
> This reminds me, Mal Rockwell ran into a situation with something messy in his
> storage unit a while back. Malcolm, what's been happening (if you want to tell us)?
>
> dl
>
>
> On 6/24/2017 9:56 PM, BURNHAM wrote:
>> Well if a record gets fully or partially submerged, there may be trouble if it's not rescued quickly. I, like most collectors, have put records in sinks full of soapy water and then rinsed them in other sinks full of tap water to clean them with no ill effects, but now I have a Monks cleaning machine so I don't do that any more. One scary situation occurred when I opened my storage unit on a warm spring day and, because it was still cold in the unit, condensation formed on every exposed surface, including naked records. I closed the unit again and when I returned a few weeks later when the warm weather had established itself, once again everything was fine.
>>
>> db
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Jun 24, 2017, at 7:18 PM, Tim Huskisson <timhuskisson at btinternet.com.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> While temperature itself may not be such a problem, surely damp has to be
>>> the greatest risk to 78s.
>>> Tim Huskisson
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
>>> [mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of BURNHAM
>>> Sent: 24 June 2017 19:56
>>> To: 78-L Mail List
>>> Subject: Re: [78-L] archiving and/or storing 78s
>>>
>>>
>>> I've stored thousands of 78s for years in storage units which experience the
>>> extremes of South Ontario weather - sub freezing in winter and very hot in
>>> summer and there have been NO ill effects. One caveat, I will never bring a
>>> record indoors in winter when it's very cold outside. I like to avoid sudden
>>> temp changes.
>>>
>>> db
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>> On Jun 24, 2017, at 12:48 PM, Malcolm <malcolm at 78data.com.invalid> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> A few years back, when 78-L was more vital than it is today, an
>>>> institutional poster or two mentioned the ideal temperature and
>>>> relative humidity ranges for storage and /or archiving of 78s. If I
>>>> remember correctly it was ~55% humidity and ~72 F degrees temperature.
>>>> Can these figures be corroborated? Have studies been done since, and
>>>> by whom? A relevant website would be a plus!
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Malcolm R
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