Humidification

Neil Patrick O'Donnell <npo [at] acsu__buffalo__edu> writes

>The Society's collection of Native American material includes
>several pairs of moccasins that have completely dried out during
>the last century.  I have placed one pair in our home-made humidity
>chamber and after several rotations, the pair softened up quite a
>bit.  However, once out of the chamber the pair quickly harden
>again.  I would appreciate any suggestions on anything we can do to
>prevent the pair from hardening again.

Perhaps storage in a barrier envelope (eg. Escal film, a transparent
ceramic barrier film) with RP-K (a humidity neutral oxygen
scavenger) would be useful in this case.

The humidity inside the envelope should remain stable for a very
long time. A very low oxygen level will slow or kill most bacteria
and mould formation, and the transparent and flexible envelope will
allow frequent examination.

Further information on these materials is available at
<URL:http://www.gowncare.com/>

Jerry Shiner
Keepsafe Systems


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:51
                 Distributed: Saturday, April 15, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-13-51-009
                                  ***