Tapes Getting Old? Watch Out for Mold!
The content of your VHS may be timeless, but the tapes themselves are not. Unfortunately, as with all things, VHS tapes and other forms of magnetic tape are subject to decay. As with old books, mold can come for your tapes. That might come as a surprise, but tapes kept in classically dank environments (basements, garages, attics) can become quite the feast for mold.
Okay, so tapes can get moldy. What does that do to them? Well, mold, a type of fungus, will engage in its life cycle within your tape. Mold spores float through our daily environments. Upon finding a moist place to settle, these spores, not unlike plant seeds, will begin to develop cells called hyphae (bactronix.com). The tape will not just act as a habitat on which the mold lives upon. Rather, the tape acts as a substrate, which is a material from which a growing organism gets nutrition through use of enzymes for digestion.
In a pursuit of food and expansion, mold will create mycelium networks. These mycelium networks stick the tape layers together (thegreatbear.co.uk) which opens the gate for damage beyond digestion. This can cause the tapes to tear when applying tension from winding or playing.
A life cycle is a pattern that repeats. Left untreated, the mold will create more spores that will infect the surrounding collection. In fact, the spores can infest equipment the tape interacts with! Digitizing your tapes can prevent this frightful degradation. You might find, when getting your tapes digitized, that they are already moldy. What then? Are your tapes doomed to be a mold colony? There is hope; the mold can be removed before inflicting further damage.
Here at Archival Works, we’ve seen our fair share of moldy tapes. In fact, we have a dedicated machine for cleaning them to ensure the mold does not spread. There is a delicate process to cleaning mold infested tape. We place the tape in a VCR that has its innards exposed (this work is not for the faint of heart). We are careful to ensure the tape is properly dry before enacting this process. With a microfiber cloth wetted with a small amount of isopropyl alcohol, the tape must be gently played forward and back as mold is gently swabbed from the surface. Swabbing requires a steady and patient hand, as the only safe motions are from the machine winding and unwinding the tape. This is done first on one side of the tape and then the other. Isopropyl alcohol denatures any mycelium or spores on the tape. This kills existing mold and prevents immediate re-growth.
Sometimes the mold colony has wreaked more extreme havoc. The constant force applied by a VCR will shred your tape if it hits a snag. When mold density is higher, such as in a case we saw just this week, the tightening mycelium will cause snags. In these rare instances, spooling and unspooling must be done by hand to prevent tearing caused by the mycelium’s tight grip! After rescuing it from the clutches of mold, we rewind the tape evenly to ensure a stable playback. Considering a VHS tape can contain half a kilometer of tape, spooling the tape by hand can be quite the task!
Of course, the safest course of action after removing mold is to then digitize your tape. As we will share in our next blog, mold isn’t the only form of destruction that time will send after your media!
Sources:
https://thegreatbear.co.uk/audio-tape/mouldy-tape/