Blue tape retainers

[Chuck Guzis]

On 06/09/2015 03:01 PM, jwsmobile wrote:

> The blue, white, or yellow material felt like and worked like latex.  It
> may have had some treatment to make it have the tactile adhesion you
> felt, but it left zero residue on the tape despite the adhesion to the
> mylar backing on the tape.

I think the guess of being vinyl is probably bang on.  Latex would have 
long since degraded.

> When you stretched it it lost the property to stick to the tape, by the
> way, so shrinkage may be the culprit if they quit working.  I find that
> the Writghtline seals work the best if the tapes were not and are not
> hung with them.  Eventually the white material will fail, or the black
> lock will break, but they are by far the longest lasting other than just
> a clear box container.

There were several competing systems for hanging tapes.  There was one 
that used hard plastic "bands" that were pretty wide (perhaps 1.25") 
that would crack if you dropped them on the floor.

I've run into tapes with 5 leaders spliced on, one right after the other.

And you'd be sure to get grief from your operator if you took one of 
those stiff leaders with a notched end and bent it double.

I remember when the self-threading vacuum column drives were introduced. 
  The usual procedure was the clip off the last inch or two of the 
leader before using them.  Of course, if you carried the same tape 
between auto- and manual-threading drives a lot, that leader could 
shrink pretty quickly.

--Chuck