[NHCOLL-L:2436] Re: Evaporation, taping of jars

Tue Sep 28 14:48:50 EDT 2004

We tape our jars here at the Canadian Museum of Nature. An article you will
find useful is:
Steigerwald, M., and S. Laframboise. 1996. Tape application: a jar sealing
method for reducing ethanol evaporation in fluid-preserved collections.
Collection Forum, 12 (2): 45-54.

The tape we had been using was recently (in the past few years) discontinued
by 3M.  Our replacement is from:
Spectape Inc.	
2771 Circleport Drive, 
Erlanger, KY 41018	
(859) 283-2044	
(859) 283-2068	
polypropylene tape with acryclic adhesive	
ST-408C (blue).					

Laura Smyk (Passmore)
Conservation Technician
Canadian Museum of Nature
Musée canadien de la nature
PO Box 3443, Station D
Ottawa, ON K1P 6P4
Tel./Tél.: (613) 566-4236
Fax/Télec.: (613) 364-4027
lsmyk at mus-nature.ca

-----Original Message-----
From: Jean-Marc Gagnon [mailto:JMGAGNON at MUS-NATURE.CA] 
Sent: September 27, 2004 2:27 PM
To: 'callomon at acnatsci.org'; 'dwood at sdnhm.org'
Cc: 'NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu'
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:2432] Re: Evaporation, taping of jars

Dear Paul and Dustin,

You may want to read the recent note by Janet Whitmore Gillette in the SPNHC
Newsletter September 2004 (just off the press).

Jean-Marc

Jean-Marc Gagnon
Chief Collection Manager / Gestionnaire en chef
Invertebrate Collections / Collections des invertébrés
Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature
P.O. Box 3443, Station D, 
Ottawa, ON Canada K1P 6P4
Tel. : 613-364-4066
Fax : 613-364-4027
e-mail/courriel : jmgagnon at mus-nature.ca
www.nature.ca

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Callomon [mailto:callomon at acnatsci.org] 
Sent: Monday, September 27, 2004 1:26 PM
To: dwood at sdnhm.org
Cc: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:2431] Re: Evaporation, taping of jars

Hi Dustin,

My predecessor as collections manager spent months wrapping plumbers' tape
(Teflon tape) round each of about 25,000 jars in our alcohol collection.
Unfortunately, she did not check the condition of the lids first, and I have
found dozens of old metal lids happily rusting away under their bright new
tape covering. 
As far as I can tell, taping up jars in this way does not help much. If
vapor has made it past the initial seal, then tape may or may not trap it
The principle is that the tape provides a secondary barrier to vapor escape,
but this assumes a very clean, tight seal against both the jar (which must
thus be free of molding marks) and the lid (which should thus not be
knurled). In practice, most collections contain a combination of lid and jar
types. For us, any reduction in vapor release that taping might have
achieved has not justified the considerable time taken to apply the tape and
the difficulty I now have in visually assessing the condition of older metal
caps. Instead, I have bought a big box of new lids in each of the sizes we
use, and apply these to older jars every time I find one that is leaking. 
I guess if you used a tape whose adhesive had good bridging qualities, such
as medical adhesive bandage (which we use for jar labels, with great
success), then taping up lids would work better.

Regards,

PC. 

Paul Callomon
Collections Manager
Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates
Department of Malacology
Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
Tel 215-405-5096
Fax 215-299-1170
Secretary, American Malacological Society
On the web at http://erato.acnatsci.org/ams/

>>> "Dustin Wood" <dwood at sdnhm.org> 09/21/04 05:37PM >>>
Dear Paul Callomon,
I got your email off the nhcoll-list serve from a discussion on taping the
outside of fluid-filled jars to take an extra step in preventing
evaporation.  I'm interested in the product you use for sealing the outside
of the jars?  I've noticed some evaporation on some of our new jars/lids
(even with foam-backed Teflon liners) and would like to take the extra
precaution.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Dustin

Dustin Wood
Collections Manager
Department of Herpetology
San Diego Natural History Museum

1788 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101

Phone: 619.255.0305
FAX: 619.232.0248
Email: dwood at sdnhm.org 