Air quality

Ramona Duncan-Huse asked about testing and monitoring air quality,
and mentioned the famous "Oddy Test," used for laboratory evaluation
of materials, and described in L. R. Lee and D. Thickett, Selection
of Materials for the Storage or Display of Museum Objects, London:
British Museum, Department of Conservation, 1966 (Occasional Paper
111), pages 14-17 inter alia. The Oddy Test is, it should be pointed
out, presented as "a corrosion test for effects on metals." When it
is used otherwise, the corrosion of metals is used as a surrogate
measure for possible effects on other materials.

It is in that manner that the Purafil Corporation's "Silver 6 Pak"
is applied. It must be noted that their Sales Bulletin #203 speaks
of a 90 day field exposure. Purafil also applies the same principles
of corrosion-altered electrical resistivity in test metal coupons in
a system they call "OnGuard 2000," which is an installed system.
1-800-222-6367

Henry Grunder
Conservation/Preservation Coordinator
The Library of Virginia

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:54
               Distributed: Wednesday, December 17, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-54-012
                                  ***