Communication of conservation information

Lisa Mibach <mibach [at] aol__com> writes

On OSG-L Katie Holbrow <Katie.Holbrow [at] clark__williams__edu> writes


>>Using a nebulizer to deliver fine coats of resin for consolidation
>>of powdery paint was presented by Dave Arnold at the Wooden
>>Artifacts section of AIC in Norfolk.  He is currently working on
>>contract at Harper's Ferry for Martin Burke; you could probably
>>track him down there.
>
>The prototype for the nebulizer method was invented by Stephan
>Michalski (using an ultrasonic mister) at the Canadian Conservation
>Institute and presented at the course given by the GCI in 1989 on
>"The Consolidation of Poorly Bound Pigments", and subsequently in
>various publications and poster sessions.
>...
>I do not at all mean to detract from Mr. Arnold's work, but I do
>believe that when it comes to questions of publication and
>attribution it is important that we acknowledge the original authors
>of useful methods, as it seems that our institutional memory is
>rapidly shrinking.

Not to make a big fuss out of this, as I know that Lisa has our
profession's integrity and well-being at heart, but for the record,
Stefan Michalski and I would like to point out that, while it is
true that Stefan first developed the ultrasonic mister in the Getty
course as stated by Lisa, we acknowledge David Arnold as the first
to have tailored and used the nebulizer.  This acknowledgment is
published in our article "Ultrasonic Misting. Part 1, Experiments on
Appearance Change and Improvement in Bonding", J.AIC 36 (1997) p.
109-110:

   "The ultrasonic mister for consolidation of powdery surfaces was
    first demonstrated by Stefan Michalski at the Getty Conservation
    Institute training course on Consolidation of Ethnographic
    Painted Artifacts in 1989. [...] Since development of the
    ultrasonic method, Arnold (1996 'Recent Advances in Mist
    Consolidation of Powdery Surfaces', AIC Abstracts, AIC, p. 102)
    has extensively researched both pneumatic and ultrasonic
    nebulizers used for respiratory medications and identified
    several ready-to-use devices."

To our knowledge, David has always been forthright in acknowledging
Stefan's contribution.

Carole Dignard and Stefan Michalski

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:92
                  Distributed: Thursday, May 14, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-11-92-011
                                  ***