[Nhcoll-l] PTFE tape on jars

[Kirsten Nicholson]

So we have been using this type of tape in our collections for the same
reasons, with mixed results. Before I got here they were using the tape,
and students working here claimed that it helped reduce loss of ethanol.
After being here a few years, we moved our collection to a new room that
did NOT have HVAC control and limited humidity/temperature control. In that
new room, we noticed a dramatic increase in the loss of ethanol within the
jars. I can't say that you wouldn't find the same effect in state of the
art jars and lids, but I can say that the tape didn't prevent the loss
anyway.

There's another bothersome issue with the tape and that is when you take
lids off, the tape has to be newly applied because the old tape has a
tendency to fall apart. So I'm not a huge fan of the tape, but if you don't
have museum quality lids, the options are limited. What I don't know is if
you're better off without the tape. My sense is that its better to have it,
but I haven't taken data to show that.

My two cents.

Kirsten


On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 4:48 PM, Callomon,Paul <prc44 at drexel.edu> wrote:

>  Folks,
>
>
>
> At least 20 years ago (before my time here), white plumbers’ tape was
> wrapped around the edge of the lids and onto the sides of all the bottle
> and jars in a certain section of our alcohol collections. This is the PTFE
> tape that plumbers use to seal threads; it is thin, soft and non-adhesive.
> Presumably the idea was to provide a secondary vapor barrier in addition to
> the jar lid seal.
>
> We are now doing long-overdue major maintenance on this collection, and
> are trying to assess the efficacy of this tape. I’d be very interested to
> hear from anyone who (a) has used it and can show it works (b) has used it
> and can show it doesn’t work, or (c) who considered using it but decided
> not to, and why.
>
>
>
>
>
> *Paul Callomon*
> *Collection Manager, Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General
> Invertebrates*
>  ------------------------------
>
> *Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia*
>
> 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
> *callomon at ansp.org <callomon at ansp.org> Tel 215-405-5096 <215-405-5096> -
> Fax 215-299-1170 <215-299-1170>*
>
>
>
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>


-- 
Kirsten E. Nicholson, Ph.D






*Assoc. Prof. Biology          and       Curator of Natural HistoryDept. of
Biology                             Museum of Cultural and Natural
History217 Brooks Hall                            103 Rowe HallCentral
Michigan Univ.                 Central Michigan University Mt. Pleasant, MI
48859                 Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859989-774-3758
             989-774-3829*
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