Vinegar Syndrome at MSA

 

The main project I worked on while I was an intern at the Maryland State Archives was with MSA’s master negative microfilm collection, in which I was given the task to identify microfilm reels that were at risk of developing vinegar syndrome, and separating those reels form the rest of the collection in order to mitigate the spread of vinegar syndrome. 

Vinegar syndrome is a process that can occur when the natural decay of older reels of film start to produce acetic acid, leading to deterioration of the film, leading it to become warped, brittle, and smelling of vinegar (leading to its namesake). If gone undetected, or left to fester, vinegar syndrome can leave a reel of film unusable, so when a reel with vinegar syndrome is found, it's important that steps are taken to preserve the reel as much as possible, typically through digitization. When a reel with vinegar syndrome is found, it is important to separate it from other reels of film. This is because the acetic acid that develops on one reel of film can transfer to other reels of film, and start deteriorating them as well.

On an average day during my internship, I would come in in the morning, say hello to everyone, head to the loading dock where the microfilm reels were kept, open the garage door and start the ventilation fan, put on some gloves, and look for reels that showed signs of vinegar syndrome, before it became too hot outside to keep the garage door open. It wasn’t uncommon for me to go through two or three pairs of gloves a day, as the acetic acid from the reels would eat away at the gloves quickly. Similarly, while the ventilation system was a nice way to stay cool, it was primarily used to keep me from inhaling any fumes that could have been produced by acetic acid. 

Over the course of the summer I went through a few thousand reels of microfilm, individually checking every single reel of microfilm for signs of vinegar syndrome. The result was the separation of a handful of microfilm reels which had shown signs of early onset vinegar syndrome. Despite having gone through so many reels, I was barely able to make a dent in the overall master negative microfilm collection. 

 

These images show examples of film reels without (first) and with (second) vinegar syndrome.