Klarinet Archive - Posting 000254.txt from 2005/08

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] salt and mold growth
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 22:21:27 -0400

<<<For what it's worth, rock salt in a nylon stocking will do an
excellent job of DE-humidifying, not humidifying. Remember that salt
mines are
about the driest places on earth. The salt is effective because it
sucks all the moisture out of the air and holds onto it.>>>

According to an experiment reported in the Instrumentalist Magazine in
about 1962 or '63, in a closed environment near water saturated with
salt, the humidity remains at exactly 50%. I didn't do the experiment
itself; I'm only reporting what I read. That was where I first heard of
the possibility of keeping reeds or reed cane in such an environment. I
tried it for a while, but found it more trouble than it is worth.

Recently, I've been doing something that seems to me to work better, and
to be less trouble. I keep my reeds and reed cane in a dorm-sized
refrigerator in my studio. I have read that the humidity in a
refrigerator remains constant at about 50%. The main thing you have to
be careful of is to avoid going off to play a gig and leaving your reeds
in the refrigerator! I haven't done it so far. I have a tag that says
"get reeds from refrigerator." Whenever I take reeds out of my case for
storage in the fridge, I put the tag on the handle of my instrument.
That serves as a reminder the next time I pick up the case.

Ed Lacy
University of Evansville

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