[Nhcoll-l] jar lids

[Callomon,Paul]

In our Malacology fluid collection (ca. 50,000 containers) we use screw-top jars (continuous thread) from 2-oz (60 ml) up to 1-gallon (3.8l, 120 mm lid diameter) size. The PP lids with F217 liners sold by O.Berk and others have proven mostly reliable, and we have introduced about 30,000 of them under our current 40-year overhaul. We have been inspecting many bail-type jars from the 1960s that have retained their seal despite their natural rubber gaskets having hardened to the point of friability; in fact, I have not seen one leak yet. If these are opened, however, we then replace them with screw-top flint glass jars for the sake of uniform standards.

For smaller specimens we use 6-dram (22 ml) screw-top vials with phenolic lids and cone seals; these are also pretty reliable. We are not taping lids at this stage, though it's an option for the future. We had previously taped our metal lids, but this often hid the rusting that eventually caused more than a few of them to fail.

The biggest step we have taken during the current project is to create a new system of metal trays to hold our jars. These allow rapid inspection of large numbers of jars, shortening the time needed for a regular inspection of the whole collection from several months to a couple of weeks. I presented on this at SPNHC in Berlin, and will be writing it up at some point. In the meantime, if anyone's interested I can send them details offline.


Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates
________________________________
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia
callomon at ansp.org Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170
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