I'm going to put on my archivist's hat since the subject of damage to CDs
came up. Several scientific tests have been run on various types of CDs and
bloc error rates as a function of some of the things that cause CDs to
deteriorate have been determined. Primarily these are light and heat and
secondarily subjection to various chemical compounds, humidity and even
gravitation (store CDs vertically, not in a big pile. Gravity tends to warp
them if they lay flat in a pile). Accelerated heat and
light tests are run and then extrapolated to normal heat and light
conditions. Assuming normal conditions, archivists now consider ordinary CDs
with a dye coating good for about 80 years if they are well taken care of.
The big news is that there was one type of CD tested that had a gold base
coating that indicated
a lifetime of 300 years! The even better news is that these are now
available . They are called
"Archival Gold The 300 Year Disc" Made by Delkin Devices. They are 74 min.
650 MB discs. You can
buy them at www.delkin.com
They cost much less than making an 8x10 chrysotype ;-) 25 discs for around
$37.00. Cheaper if you buy 100. I hope this company will consider making
archival gold DVD discs.
Bob Schramm
Check out my web page at:
http://www.SchrammStudio.com
Received on Fri Jun 24 20:50:00 2005
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