[Nhcoll-l] Supplier in California for jars and lids for fluid preserved collections?

[Douglas Yanega]

For less-than-critical storage (such as bulk samples) we have often used 
various sizes of Mason jars (both Kerr and Ball), and - for very 
long-term storage - culinary jars with gaskets and a latchable lid, 
rather than anything from specialty suppliers.

These aren't exactly manufactured for museum specimen storage, but we 
honestly have had very, very few problems with them, over a 25-year time 
span for many of them.

Note that for the kinds of specimens we store (arthropods), there's no 
evidence that any chemicals from the gaskets of either type of jar are 
problematic, so it really comes down to preventing alcohol from 
evaporating, and they seem to do this pretty well, aside from the 
smallest size of the Mason jars (4 oz.), with which we've had some 
problems. Not sure why it's only the smallest jars that are troublesome.

Are we deluding ourselves about the longevity of these jars?

Peace,

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82