Nicotine poisoning from cleaning?

[Pamplemousse]

I've just been cleaning up an old radio/cassette recorder, and now I am worried the slightly yellow mess on the paper towels is nicotine and it's going to poison me because I didn't wear gloves. It's not like the thing was bright yellow and stank of it but it's upsetting me now.

[Fishmanpa]

With all due respect PMousse... Ummmm... C'mon now... No "what ifs" or "yeah buts"....

Positive thoughts
(and yay for cassettes! I have quite a collection from the 'old days')

[Pamplemousse]

With all due respect PMousse... Ummmm... C'mon now... No "what ifs" or "yeah buts"....

Positive thoughts
(and yay for cassettes! I have quite a collection from the 'old days')

Thanks, FMP. Funny how things like this get stuck in your head from previous occasions and as ever, Google isn't my friend, is it?

As for cassettes: I have temporarily suspended an operation to digitise over 200 high quality recordings I acquired of a particular radio show that aired in the UK during the 1970s and then for many years afterwards; these are all from the early period and were clearly made on good machines. As a result, I acquired many high-end cassette decks to see which ones work best, from makers like Tandberg, Nakamichi, Aiwa and Akai. I'd transferred about 50 before the project was halted; you soon learned whose cassettes stood the test of time as regards ability to be played back years later.

Some included contemporary news broadcasts before the programme started which was really helpful as it dates the show: one mentions the Balcombe Street Siege in London.

[Fishmanpa]

That's really cool PMousse! I've digitized about 1/3 of my collection (Around 800 commercial and personal recordings). Even some made on one those portable cassette recorders from the 70's of me and my guitar when I was in my teens. You probably don't want to know what kind of residue is on those old cassettes!

Positive thoughts

[Pamplemousse]

That's really cool PMousse! I've digitized about 1/3 of my collection (Around 800 commercial and personal recordings). Even some made on one those portable cassette recorders from the 70's of me and my guitar when I was in my teens. You probably don't want to know what kind of residue is on those old cassettes!

Positive thoughts

Most of those old cassettes leave their residue on the heads and the pinch roller, I find! (Joking aside, one particular tape needed me to clean the tape path after every song and join it all back together in SoundForge)

Someone asked me why I'm bothering - "can't you just download it?" the most common reply. Well, I point out to those that if they can point out where I can get recordings of particular trains passing where I lived as a teenager in 1979, or the reminiscences of somewhat drunken family members at my parents' silver wedding anniversary party back in 1977, I'll do so.

[pulisa]

Irreplaceable memories, PM..You carry on regardless. Download it my arse...Some of us still hanker after the quality stuff

[NoraB]

I've just been cleaning up an old radio/cassette recorder, and now I am worried the slightly yellow mess on the paper towels is nicotine and it's going to poison me because I didn't wear gloves. It's not like the thing was bright yellow and stank of it but it's upsetting me now.

P, I have cleaned teenage boy's bedrooms without a biohazard suit..

I've cleaned off decades of nicotine from my mother's things after she died, and I didn't even bother washing her scarf because the smell of Silk Cut and Estee Lauder was my mother!

You're ok.

[ankietyjoe]

If people can inhale it for decades, you can touch it for minutes.

[AntsyVee]

PM, I think you didn't clean hard enough if you still have time to worry Maybe you should come over and give my house a once-over

[Pamplemousse]

PM, I think you didn't clean hard enough if you still have time to worry Maybe you should come over and give my house a once-over

Although I spent a little time with a tin of "Silvo" (Brasso's less angry cousin) this afternoon gently polishing some electrical contacts on a piece of vintage test equipment to distract myself, it doesn't alter the fact my house is an absolute s**thole; the sort of place you see on these Channel 5 "poverty/scumbag/weirdo porn" shows.