Something strange was happening in the drawers

August 1, 2018 2:40 PM

The World’s Largest Speedo Collection Almost Oozed Away. In 2012, Australia’s Powerhouse Museum discovered that something strange was happening with some of their swimsuits: The Inherent Vice of Speedos.
posted by Hypatia (34 comments total)

> inherent vice is “no joke,” notes Sarah Scaturro, head conservator

As both a speedo skeptic and a lapsed Catholic, I beg to differ
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 2:46 PM on August 1, 2018 [5 favorites]

Even in the Powerhouse Museum’s climate-controlled storage area, there was enough moisture in the air to cause a gradual breakdown in the chemical bonds that resulted in stickiness and oozing.

Given the humidity in RI this summer, I sympathize.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:47 PM on August 1, 2018 [3 favorites]

something strange was happening in the drawers

Who you gonna call?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 2:55 PM on August 1, 2018 [17 favorites]

"Dissolves in water" is a quality I look for in a swimsuit.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:00 PM on August 1, 2018 [37 favorites]

"Dissolves in water" is a quality I look for in a swimsuit.

many teenage boys' dream!
posted by GuyZero at 3:04 PM on August 1, 2018 [5 favorites]

Time makes pools of us all.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:08 PM on August 1, 2018 [38 favorites]

huh, i went into the article thinking it would be from the suits' exposure to pool chemicals (idk why i assumed they were all previously worn) so the straight up "this fabric actually just dissolves in damp conditions" part was v interesting. meanwhile i still await an explanation for why sometimes you find an old pair of socks at the back of your drawer and when you go to put them on all the elastic has disintegrated and they're weird saggy heaps of fabric.
posted by poffin boffin at 3:11 PM on August 1, 2018 [6 favorites]

It's kind of weird to have someone say that clingy swimsuits were undesirable while going over the history of Speedo.
posted by ckape at 3:11 PM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

In Australia we call speedos budgie smugglers.
posted by adept256 at 3:28 PM on August 1, 2018 [9 favorites]

In Australia we call speedos budgie smugglers.

Because cockatoos would be numerically inaccurate.
posted by srboisvert at 3:35 PM on August 1, 2018 [30 favorites]

they're weird saggy heaps

I can relate.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:45 PM on August 1, 2018 [8 favorites]

ohh the chemical explanation actually reminded me of why when you find old flip phones you've stashed away the plastic/rubber buttons on the sides are all weirdly sticky and oozy.
posted by numaner at 3:49 PM on August 1, 2018 [9 favorites]

YES WHY THIS. why the sticky ooze. i do not like.
posted by poffin boffin at 3:54 PM on August 1, 2018 [5 favorites]

something something about original properties of rubber being sticky tree stuff
posted by numaner at 4:03 PM on August 1, 2018 [4 favorites]

sweaty dyn-o-mite.
posted by clavdivs at 4:13 PM on August 1, 2018

This is a fascinating (but not unexpected) example of polymer hydrolysis. I may have to introduce it as an example in my o-chem class.

Polyurethane, the culprit in the affected swimsuits, is a very long, generally stable molecule made of repeating units which are connected by a carbamate linkage. The carbamate functional group is susceptible to reaction with water, which can break (hydrolysis) the molecule at those linkages.

Polyurethane is fairly resistant to water hydrolysis, with a very low rate for the reaction. However, even reactions that have low rates will still eventually take place if the necessary ingredients are available (in this case, water in the form of humidity). Over the expected useful life of a swimsuit (a couple of years) and with only intermittent immersion, it isn’t a problem. But over 20 years in a humid environment, there’s an effect.

This characteristic is well attested in industrial uses of polyurethane as a coating material. Here’s one example from a manufacturer of polyurethane drum liners, warning of allowing water to stand in the drum long-term.
posted by darkstar at 4:23 PM on August 1, 2018 [27 favorites]

meanwhile i still await an explanation for why sometimes you find an old pair of socks at the back of your drawer and when you go to put them on all the elastic has disintegrated and they're weird saggy heaps of fabric.

Yay - another chemistry question! That’s where I’m a Viking!

The rubber in sock elastic reacts with, and is degraded by, oxygen in the air. Oxygen can cause polymers to break apart to form highly reactive radicals, which can then re-combine with each other to crosslink to create a less elastic polymer network. Because the degraded product has less elasticity, it therefore cracks or crumbles instead of stretching. The process is broadly called oxidative degradation.

An additional factor is that polymers with double bonds in the repeating molecular units (including natural rubber elastics) are especially reactive to ozone, in a process called ozone cracking.

I mainly notice this sort of thing in my swim trunks’ elastic bands, which suffer the multiple indignities of chlorine attack, oxidative degradation, UV degradation, and water hydrolysis. :(
posted by darkstar at 4:50 PM on August 1, 2018 [34 favorites]

Why would I be surprised that "Inherent Vice" is a technical term related to entropy and the title of a Pynchon novel? A question I never asked, answered.
posted by sjswitzer at 5:01 PM on August 1, 2018 [9 favorites]

ok so can my socks live forever in the icy void of outer space
posted by poffin boffin at 5:06 PM on August 1, 2018 [13 favorites]

Damn you entropy, you win again!

*shakes fist at entropy*
posted by Hairy Lobster at 5:11 PM on August 1, 2018 [4 favorites]

*shakes fist at entropy*

Warming the room slightly.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:26 PM on August 1, 2018 [51 favorites]

"Dissolves in water" is a quality I look for in a swimsuit.

Frankly this sounds like a fantastic business opportunity

I can think of a number of communities that might be interested in this
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:58 PM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

*shakes fist at entropy*

Warming the room slightly.



OMG, I LLOLed!*


*Literally laughed out loud
posted by darkstar at 6:08 PM on August 1, 2018

See also: dripping furniture.

Also: gold plastic syndrome, bane of toy collectors.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:12 PM on August 1, 2018 [3 favorites]

Happens in fountain pens too, particularly celluloids from the 1920s but more recent ones as well. I’ve seen photos of lovely Omas pens that were about to crystallize into dust and ones that were nearly goo.
posted by rewil at 6:27 PM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

Another common example I suspect most people have encountered: the rubber in pencil erasers gets hard and brittle over time, even if never used.
posted by darkstar at 6:35 PM on August 1, 2018 [6 favorites]

I appreciate your posts, darkstar. Every so often I used to encounter a lost pair of my underwear (long or short) that had completely gone slack, and I would blame myself for it. It died of sadness rather than be stretched far enough to go around my hips again, I would think.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:53 PM on August 1, 2018 [5 favorites]

Oh my goodness, soluble fish really do swim very fast!
posted by jamjam at 7:30 PM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

The feeling is mutual, Countess Elena!
posted by darkstar at 9:08 PM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

Over the expected useful life of a swimsuit (a couple of years)

Lol, for competition suits, try a couple of meets. Practice suits, a few months. Generally, it's the chlorine that is taking your suits out, so the hydrolysis is academic, until of course, you try to save them.
posted by dame at 5:44 AM on August 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

Time makes pools of us all.

You either die a swimmer, or live long enough to see yourself become a skinny dipper.
posted by solotoro at 5:49 AM on August 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

Reminds me of my '78 Chevy Monza. I thought I had a fogged windshield but it was just my plastic interior breaking down. I had to scrape it off.
posted by tommasz at 6:19 AM on August 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

Plastics (and some natural polymers like rubber or lacquer) are the absolute bane of museum conservators' lives. Foam upholstery hardens and crumbles into a nasty. slightly toxic sand, clear plastics discolour and craze, and pretty much anything discolors and cracks if exposed to enough UV light. Some of them are impossible to stabilize. I've not come across anything that just turned to goo, though.

The main problem with all plastics seems to be that, unlike most traditional materials, they look at their absolute best when brand new, no matter how well cared for they are later. Not meant to last, I suppose, which is not what you want to hear if you're trying to maintain the damn things in a museum store.
posted by Fuchsoid at 9:07 AM on August 2, 2018 [4 favorites]

Fuchsoid, your comment about museum conservation reminded me: I recently learned that numismatist are especially careful to make sure that the coin flips (the plastic envelopes or plastic-windowed cardboard squares) that they store their coins in do not have any PVC in the plastic.

PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, degrades over time to release trace amounts of hydrochloride acid, which then corrodes the coins. Yet many coin flips and coin storage pages currently on the market, especially the cheaper ones sourced from overseas manufacturers, contain PVC. Some even proudly write it on their packaging.
posted by darkstar at 3:25 PM on August 2, 2018 [1 favorite]