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From: kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov ( Scott Dorsey)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,rec.audio,rec.video
Subject: Re: What is the life-time of magnetic tape?????
Message-ID: <1991Feb11.133355.18792@news.larc.nasa.gov>
Date: 11 Feb 91 13:33:55 GMT
References: <1991Jan17.183902.24474@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <1991Jan17.191341.12193@zoo.toronto.edu> <38204@cup.portal.com>
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Reply-To: kludge@grissom.gatech.edu ( Scott Dorsey)
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In article <38204@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
>It seems to me that the "imprinting" phenomenon which slowly destroys
>magnetic tape recordings could be eliminated by winding two tapes onto
>a spool headed for storage: one tape holding the data and a second tape
>with something to diffuse the magnetic field such as nickel metallization.
>Or maybe a fairly thick tape, say 1 mil, would be enough to separate the
>tape layers and prevent imprinting.  Or maybe just winding a blank tape
>onto the same spool would be enough.  Has any of these ideas been tried?

The BBC once tried archival storage of tape in a similar way.  They would 
wind a thick paper leader and a tape together on a reel so that the layers
were seperated.  This eliminated print-through almost completely, but it
dramatically increased the storage space.  
   Print-through isn't that much of a problem with modern tapes if you use
1.5 mil stuff.  With thinner tapes it can be a serious problem.
--scott