Thymol for killing mould

[Roger Hicks]

Sorry but you have asked whether thymol vapors could kill the spores at a distance without any wiping process (requiring some total dismantle of the sick optics) :



You've got some answers enough, based on what you described as for the condition of the stuff suffering from live fungus and not spores (there are much more spores in your own house than around the old photo gear you want to get clean).

Now you can do what must/should/can be done (chose the right verb).

"Kill" and "clean" are not the same thing. READ before replying.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

The main problem would be to get at everything up to the last spore. Thymol will not magically penetrate everything unless you bounce up the concentration to the point where it will eat into the adhesives and paints. Conservators even use vacuum chambers to get the poisons to the target.

Mechanical cleaning will be required in any case where the gear is fungus infested. And once you are inside, cleaning with an approved optics fungicide (e.g. Zeiss 102.527) seems a more prudent way to go about it. For lenses that are not infested, but which you merely suspect to be invisibly infected, plain dry storage will do - simply vacuum seal them along with a bag of silica. As long as the lenses are stored in hot and humid conditions, even a perfectly disinfected one will pick up spores from the environment within days.

You're almost certainly right. It's hardly urgent: it'll probably all go at a camera fair anyway. It was just idle curiosity about whether anyone had actually tried it, and indeed on whether there was any published research. As I say, I'm fully aware of the need for mechanical cleaning and good storage, to say nothing of the advantages of UV light.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Highway 61]

"Kill" and "clean" are not the same thing. READ before replying.

Of course ! Everybody wanting to get rid of live fungus attacking some photo gear don't want to get the optics clean, they just want to kill the spores outside the sick stuff but the mycelium filaments growing up on the optics surface aren't the problem...

What will your next comment be ? "THINK before posting" ?

There is some nice saying by Louis Jouvet coming to my mind right now.

Bye bye.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Roger,

I have no idea whether the following is of practical use to you, e.g for instance, without disassembly how would one be able to successfully penetrate to the inside of lenses to attack the mould?

With the caveat that I am no expert in mould removal, conservation or a chemist, I make the observation that the active ingredients in an over-the-counter mould and mildew remover (Astonish Mould & Mildew Remover) I use at home occasionally in the bathroom, washing machine and uPVC window frames is:

Tetrasodium phosphonoethane 1,2-dicarboxylate and hexasodium phosphonobutane-1,2,3,4-tetracarboxylate.

The above are marked as bleaches, safe for plastics, glass, ceramic tiles but not for aluminium, copper, brass, chrome etc.

Also, I make the observation that sometimes passing on a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Lastly, have you thought of contacting the conservators at the Science Museum, London?

I wish you well.

Dear Brian,

Thanks. As I said to Sevo, I'm not going to knock myself out over it, so I think I'll just leave it as it is.

Cheers,

R.