Heating museum materials

Nynne Sethia <nynnecarl [at] hotmail__com> writes

>I'm working for a museum of cultural history, which is in the
>process of establishing a treatment facility against pests. ...
>...
>... Is there anyone using or
>experimenting with heat treatment, who can give me some comments on
>their experience? ...

Besides the Danish conservator you mentioned, and Tom Strang at the
Canadian Conservation Institute, mentioned by Rose Smart, two other
sources gave recent papers on developing 'heat tents' at a
conference in Australia. Andrew Pearce <andrew.w.pearce [at] awm__gov__au>
at the Australian War Memorial has a prototype system which he
indicated will be available as a kit.

The other paper was by Agnes Brokerhof <agnes.brokerhof [at] icn__nl> and
is available as a pamphlet from the Netherlands Institute for
Cultural Heritage, entitled "The solar tent--an effective method to
disinfest museum objects using solar generated heat."

Both systems seem easy to build and operate; we haven't tried it at
our museum yet, but I hope to, sometime. The idea is to refine the
basic method Rose Smart described to provide as even and
controllable heat as possible. Agnes Brokerhof tried heating various
materials and has ideas on what will and won't be harmed by this
method of treatment.

Kathy Nanowin
Assistant Conservator
Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 15:61
                 Distributed: Wednesday, March 6, 2002
                       Message Id: cdl-15-61-004
                                  ***