Re: Floods, WAS: OT: Manfrotto tripod mini-report

[Shaun Canning]

Yes Don, that's wonderful, and your point is not lost on conservation people like me. Of course technology can be of significant help. But it probably helps more if we take major steps to ensure that significant or irreplaceable items of local or international cultural value are protected from such mundane threats as floods or mud's.

Cheers

Shaun

Dr E D F Williams wrote:

In 1966 Florence was hit by the devastating 'Arno' flood. Ancient books in
30 libraries suffered terrible damage. Centuries old books were soaked and
covered with silt and mud. The sight of the shelves in the Biblioteca
Nazionale Centrale di Firenze was heart breaking. No one would have believed
anything could be saved.
However, hundreds of students and volunteers were enlisted and many books
were removed from the shelves and dried. Others just dried in the stacks.
Velum bound volumes, paper and parchment documents that looked like they
were ready to be carted to the dump were later restored by washing in warm
water and by other very simple methods. In many cases there was more dried
mud than paper.

Photographs and books or manuscripts, never mind how wet and crumpled they
may be, if dried immediately before they begin to decay, can later be
cleaned and restored. This later cleaning is quite easy. Books damaged in
the Arno flood were examined by scanning electron microscopy after
restoration. The micrographs showed traces of mud invisible to the naked
eye. I have pictures of the stacks and damage. If anyone is interested
please contact me off list.

Don

Don Williams
___________

Dr E D F Williams
http://personal.inet.fi/cool/don.williams
Author's Web Site and Photo Gallery
Updated: March 30, 2002


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Johnston" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 10:50 PM
Subject: Floods, WAS: OT: Manfrotto tripod mini-report

That night I kept having nightmares about having to wade through
floodwater downstairs! First light i looked out and breathed a sigh of
relief to see no appreciable rise. The stake confirmed it.

My mother's house in Cambridge (MA) flooded so badly a couple of years ago
that it came within a foot of the first-floor joists. He washing machine

was

_floating_ and bumping against the basement ceiling!

They lost a lot of "stuff," including some family heirlooms and old
photographs.

Heat is the weather phenomenon most dangerous to humans, statistically,

but

I'll bet flooding is the chief danger to the survival of historical
artifacts on paper, such as photographs.

--Mike

.

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Shaun Canning								
Cultural Heritage Services 						
High Street, Broadford,
Victoria, 3658.

www.heritageservices.com.au/

Phone: 0414-967644
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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