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Archiver > APG > 2004-09 > 1095948733


From: CynthiaSwope <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Hurricane Ivan - Recovery Tips
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 10:26:55 -0500


Ken,
I certainly didn't want to insult you but it is clear I did. I merely
thought his comments might be helpful to whomever was reading the posts
and passing along an FYI, assuming everyone could do what they want
with the information I hoped some might find useful.
I'm sure that the fanning out is time consuming, still i thought his
comments on what heat might do were salient to the topic. I should have
just cut and pasted that, but then the context would be lost, and i am
SO used to taking full quotes for genealogy and NOT editing that it
didn't occur to me to edit him. I regret his use of the term malarky
for the insult it obviously gave , but i really think it only reflects
to a step he would not use professionally for reasons of damage by heat
possible that he mentioned-he's got to be prudent when he deals with a
real and damaging mold infestation, which is NOT my way of implying that
you are not when seeking to avoid them.



Cynthia:

Even though your brother might be a "art conservationist" I beg to
differ about the
freezer/oven method. It has worked repeatedly for me over the last
decade and a
half since I have been in the rare book & ephemera business. Granted, I
have not
had that many opportunities to use it, it still worked when I did. I
never "studied"
archival conservation in school, just going by what we use to be called
"common
sense." The logic is that there is going to be some small amount of
moisture when
freezing the book that is unavoidable (that is, unavoidable in the
freezer of your
refrigerator, not a fancy freezing device at a conservation place), so
you want to dry
it out quickly, hence the heating in an oven. Sure, it will dry out
readily enough on
its own, but drying it out quicker is the point that I wanted to make. I
suppose it is
six of one, half a dozen of another....everybody has there own
method....but its a
stretch to call it "malarky."

Ken Milano


On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 08:27:09 -0500, CynthiaSwope
<>
wrote :

> I passed along the recent emails regarding recovery to my brother, who

> is an art conservationist and does deal with paper. I'm just going
to
> cut and paste what he wrote back as an fyi post script to the posts
> already made
> He wrote
> "I am dubious about the freezer then oven thing: some molds survive
> cold, so I am not sure freezing will really kill them. Paper and book

> conservators do freeze things in an emergency as it sort of stabilizes

> them until they can be dealt with in a more thorough manner. Never
> heard of it as a method of killing mold. The oven thing I think is
> probably malarky: chemical reactions speed up with heat, and most
> non-archival paper (newspapers, books, etc.) made since c. 1850 is
> highly acidic, and heat will increase the reaction rate of the acidic
> degradation. Just let them defrost normally, fanned open is good.
> The important thing about mold is that it is always there, always
> present, and if the conditions for its growth are there: high
humidity,
> dark, still, warm, nutritious spaces, it will thrive in time. Control

> the humidity and mold becomes dormant, as good as dead. Keep it dry,
> you will have no problems."
> Cynthia Swope
>
>
>
>
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