Books with blocked pages

David Tremain summarized for Diana Ruby-Sanderson, Nov. 27, the
situation with coated paper that blocks together if not freeze-dried
or separated while drying.  Coincidentally, the paper industry
literature has recently included a lot of articles related to
adhesives in coatings.  It occurred to me that if we knew more about
them, and if someone wanted to do a little research, we might find
out how to dissolve or weaken those adhesives.  I looked up the
types listed in Lockwood-Post's directory, and found, under "Latex
(adhesives & coatings)"--that's what they call them--the following
types, with their suppliers:  acrylic, acrylontile (acrylonitril?),
butyl, natural, neoprene, polyvinylidene chloride, polyvinyl
chloride, styrene butadiene, urethane and vinyl acetate.  Styrene
butadiene is probably the most commonly used nowadays.  With older
books, of course, you'd be dealing with adhesives that were popular
at the time.

I called Miami University's paper school, and talked with their
coating expert, Al Herbet [sic], who told me that there are natural
adhesives (paste, protein-based adhesives, etc.) and polymers.  The
natural adhesives generally have insolubilizers added, but the
polymers don't.  The polymers are generally not very soluble in
anything, but they do soften with heat, so this might be tried as a
way of separating pages.

I will try to gather some more useful information and either post it
here or publish it in the Alkaline Paper Advocate.

Ellen McCrady, Editor
Abbey Publications
7105 Geneva Dr.
Austin, TX 78723
512-929-3992
Fax:  512-929-3995

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:50
                 Distributed: Monday, December 8, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-50-010
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