Hi Cristin,

There is a test for organic halides (useful for checking for chlorides)
called the Beilstein Test that you can easily do yourself.  You need a
copper wire (maybe run over it with some sandpaper to make sure there is not
a coating on the wire.) Heat the wire with a flame (a lighter will do) until
it is hot and pull the wire across the plastic to melt some of the plastic
to the wire.  Then put it back over the flame.  If the flame turns green,
you have a "bad" plastic and should replace the lot.  To compare and make
sure you're doing the test right, see if you can find an old, yellowed piece
of plastic tubing.  Those are usually PVC, and should give you a green flame
so you know what to look for.  This test does not check for presence of
plasticizers and coatings on the sleeves, but does check if the sleeves have
chlorides.  There are only a limited number of plastics that are used to
make sleeves, usually polyethylene and polypropylene which don't need
plasticizers and then the dreaded polyvinyl chloride.  If you've got good
sleeves around, do a visual comparison.  Good sleeves should be clear or
maybe semi-opaque, but not at all yellow.    It might be worthwhile, also,
to see if there is a brand name anywhere on the sleeves and follow up that
angle if you haven't already.  If you don't get green flame and you're doing
the test correctly, I personally would feel comfortable keeping the sleeves.

Good luck!
Ellen Carrlee
Curator of Collections and Exhibits
Juneau-Douglas City Museum
Carrlee Artifact Conservation Services

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Grant, Cristin [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 10:07 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: how to check photo sleeve materials
>
>
>Hi everyone,
>We recently received a large collection of 3.5"x6" negatives (roughly
>2000 of them). Happily, I have a couple volunteers who would like to
>begin identifying them, scanning them, etc. Here is my question. These
>negatives came to us already in plastic sleeves, but I do not know what
>these sleeves are made of. I already know that storage enclosures for
>negatives/photos should be made of polyester, polyethylene, or
>polypropylene, and that polyvinyl is a big no-no. So I started in on
>some further research in the hopes that I could determine what material
>the sleeves are made of, and thereby determine whether the
>negatives can
>remain in the sleeves they arrived in. I checked several places, and
>found out that another key factor to this type of storage enclosure is
>whether the plastic has been coated and whether it contains
>plasticizers.
>
>But, what I'm struggling with is, how can I tell what these sleeves are
>made of, and how can I tell whether the plastic has been coated or
>contains plasticizers? Obviously, if we can leave the
>negatives in their
>existing sleeves it would be a big plus, since purchasing 2000 new
>enclosures is costly. In short, how can I tell if these sleeves are ok?
>
>
>Thank you for any suggestions!
>Cristin Grant
>Wisconsin Maritime Museum
>
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