Caring for Cultural Material 1

Caring for Cultural Material 2

Damage and Decay

Managing Collections

Managing People

Handling, Transportation, Storage and Display

Glossary

Index

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Caring for Cultural Material 2
In this volume:
– Textiles
– Leather
– Wood
– Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Material
arrow Metals
– Outdoor Collections
– Acknowledgments
Metals
In this chapter:
– Objectives
– Introduction
– Metal objects in collections
– Common metals
– The nature of metals
– What are the most common types of damage?
– Common causes of damage
– Handling, storage and display guidelines
– Metals in Australia’s climatic zones
– Care of particular metals
– Silver
– Nickel silver
– Copper and copper alloys
– Iron and its alloys
– Plated iron
– Lead and pewter
– Tin and its alloys
– Aluminium
– Gold
  MORE ABOUT METALS
– Alloys
– Corrosion of metals
– Electroplate
arrow Zinc carbonate blotter
– Brasses
– Bronzes
– Iron and steel
– Bentonite paste
– Chloride ions and aluminium and its alloys
– Spot-tests
– For further reading
– Self-evaluation quiz
– Answers to self-evaluation quiz

 

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Metals

Zinc carbonate blotter

If woven charcoal cloth or sintered zinc oxide pellets are not available or easy to obtain, then zinc carbonate can be used as a simple and very effective treatment against the adverse effects of sulphur pollution.

Sheets of acid-free blotting paper are immersed in a bath of a soluble zinc salt such as 10g of zinc sulphate in 1 litre of water.

Once the blotter is wet, a solution of 20g of sodium carbonate in 1 litre of water is poured into the bath, producing a white, cloudy solution of zinc carbonate.

The blotter is removed from the bath, and dried under pressure—to prevent cockling.

When dry, it can be placed underneath textile coverings in the base of a display case, or rolled up and placed in a support beneath a raised display platform within the display case.

This simple treatment has prevented the tarnishing of silver objects for a period of six years in a display case which has not been opened to release pollutant build-ups.

 

 

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