Cleaning Archival Acetates

[Steve E.]

From the dawn of the world wide web, this tidbit:


http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind9403d&L=archives&D=0&T=0&P=7488


LISTSERV @ Miami University

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 17:13:51 EST
Reply-To: Archives & Archivists <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Archives & Archivists <[log in to unmask]>
From: Michael Cogswell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Cleaning Acetate discs
In-Reply-To: Message of Fri,
25 Mar 1994 13:42:45 GMT-5 from <[log in to unmask]>

Re: Cleaning acetate discs

I have learned several methods of cleaning acetate discs...and by far the best and safest uses *mineral spirits*. I learned this method from Jack Towers, who is perhaps the most famous American name in the restoration of historical jazz recordings.

Here's a brief description of the process, but please call me for more details before you begin:

1. Wipe the disc with mineral spirits on a soft cotton cloth. This will remove the milky film that appears on old acetates.

2. Wash gently with a very mild Ivory soap and water solution. I use a special goat-hair brush that was custom made for this purpose. It's very soft.

3. Rinse with clear, luke-warm water.

4. Blot dry in a soft, cotton towel.

5. After the disc is thoroughly dry, place in the best sleeve that you can afford.

Be careful not to get the label wet.

At the ARSC annual meeting in June (in NYC) I will be giving a presentation that includes slides of the step-by-step process we use here in the Armstrong Archives.

Another list reader has responded to contact Chris Patton. Chris has published at least one journal article on preservation of acetates and would be an excellent contact. Good luck!

Michael Cogswell
Louis Armstrong Archives
Queens College, CUNY
(718) 997-3670
mcsqc@cunyvm

(contact info most likely out of date)

[Steve E.]

I found that, through THIS:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/any-tips-for-cleaning-an-acetate.49563/

"You can use different commercially available record cleaners, so long as they do not contain any alcohol whatsoever. "

"Water and dishwashing liquid or just a carbon fiber brush if the acetate is already in good shape. You should be able to get a few decent plays out of the acetate before it starts to audibly degrade. I would not even think about oil unless the acetate is in pretty bad shape..."

Zonophone writes:

For the print-minded, try: Christopher Ann Paton, Stephanie E. Young, Harry P. Hopkins, and Robert B. Simmons, "A Review and Discussion of Selected Acetate Disc Cleaning Methods: Anecdotal, Experiential and Investigative Findings." In ARSC Journal vol. 28, no 1: 1-23. 1997.

And: Paton, Christopher Ann. 1991. Preservation of acetate disc sound recordings at Georgia
State University. Midwestern archivist 16, no. 1: 11–20.

A sampling of the more or less conventional wisdom on the internet:

http://www.loc.gov/preserv/care/record.html

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/6/28/s28-1019-e.html

http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind9403d&L=archives&D=0&T=0&P=7488

(Where I work, we don't use wet cleaners on acetates, but YMMV!)

Don't forget to use the right stylus...

[Steve E.]

So! Everyone talks about the Research of Christopher Ann Paton. Sounds like her articles are the go-to ones. Here, she seems to sum it up:
http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/1998/1458.html
or
http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform//mailing-lists/cdl/instances/1998/1998-12-02.dst


Date: 1 Dec 1998
From: Christopher Ann Paton <libcap [at] panther__gsu__edu>
Subject: Transcription discs

Andrea Bowes <abowes [at] compusmart__ab__ca> writes

>The archives that I work with has several large collections of glass
>transcription discs from the 40's and 50's and they will be
>reformatting a selection of them soon. I am unfamiliar with this
>archival record format and would like some further information
>before we proceed with this project. In particular several discs
>have a white crystal formation over their surface. What is the
>black layer of the disc made of? What might the crystals be?
>Finally is there a safe way to remove them?

There's a fair amount of literature on transcription discs, some of
which discusses what they're made of and how they age. The answers
to the question of how to clean them are many and varied, and tend
to be controversial; there is no single authoritative answer. It is
generally agreed, however, that the crystals on the surface are best
left alone until it is time to reformat. The coating on the discs
is generally reported as being nitrocellulose (some sources report
cellulose acetate. Our work at GSU confirmed published reports that
the white substance is composed of fatty acids, primarily palmitic
acid and stearic acid, which are produced as the plasticizers in the
disc coating deteriorate.

A classic source for information on these discs is "Preservation
and Storage of Sound Recordings, by A.G. Pickett and M.M. Lemcoe,
1959 (republished by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections
in the early 1990s). Pickett and Lemcoe discuss what these discs
are made of and how they behaved under accelerated aging, but were
not in a position at that time to know how the discs would appear
following nearly 30 additional years of routine storage.

Other sources of information include:

Gerald Gibson, "Decay and Degradation of Disk and Cylinder
Recordings in Storage," in Archiving the Audio-Visual Heritage
(1988, ed. by Orbanz) (pp. 47 - 54).

A Manual of Sound Archive Administration, by Alan Ward (1990).

"The Care and Handling of Recorded Sound Materials" by Gilles
St.-Laurent. Originally published by the Commission on
Preservation and Access, 1991, it was republished in the ARSC
Journal, 23:2 (fall 1992): 144 - 156.

Finally, in 1997, my colleagues and I at Georgia State University
published "A Review and Discussion of Selected Acetate Disc Cleaning
Methods: Anecdotal, Experiential and Investigative Findings," ARSC
Journal 28:1, (Spring 1997): 1 - 23. The piece includes discussion
of the physical properties of the coating on these discs, plus
several common cleaning methods.

There's a good bit more literature out there, but these are the ones
that come immediately to mind this morning. I hope this helps.

Chris Paton
Archivist, Popular Music Collection
Special Collections Department
Pullen Library
Georgia State University


******
The bolded article seems to be the classic. Unfortunately it is out of print. Anyone have access to it?
http://www.arsc-audio.org/journal-backissues.html

(I noticed that the article is often mistyped as "Anecdotal, Experimental (or Experimential) and Investigative Findings.")

[Steve E.]

Terry at Apollo says that any record cleaning liquid that doesn't contain a solvent should be OK!