Erasures

Wesley Boomgaarden <wboomgaa [at] bottom__magnus__acs__ohio-state__edu>
writes

>... The diary, whose entries are largely in
>pencil, has several key sections that exhibit sections that show
>evidence of erasures.  These erasures themselves are incomplete
>enough to promise real interest and perhaps even to tantalize
>curators and other scholars.  That is to say, the erasures appear
>almost, but not quite, readable.
>...
>How does one "bring back" to legibility such

Erased (graphite) pencil writing is most easily read using near
infrared photography.   The document should be illuminated with a
tungsten or tungsten-halogen light source (not flash, fluorescent or
daylight), and photographed on ordinary infrared film using a Kodak
Wratten 77A filter or similar.   The success rate using this
technique is very high.

Dr. Nigel Seeley
The National Trust
36, Queen Anne's Gate
London, SW1H 9AS
+44 171 447 6521
Fax: +44 171 447 6540

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 9:67
                 Distributed: Thursday, March 28, 1996
                        Message Id: cdl-9-67-001
                                  ***