Compact storage of wet collections

Lisa Mibach gave some useful advice in Conservation DistList
Instance: 14:5 Monday, July 17, 2000, describing the damage that can
occur with inadequately designed racking and specimen protection.

The Manchester Museum is also designing mobile racking for these and
other collections at the moment.  In order to provide the racking
designers with a performance specification, it is necessary to have
knowledge of what causes damage to objects.  One aspect is the
forces that the objects are subject to.  Some research in packaging
for transport has been carried out and comparable information is
required for mobile racking solutions.  Both shock absorbers and
speed limiters have been used here leading to better performance,
but there is plenty of scope for improvement.

I (and others) should be interested in hearing about specifications,
perhaps as maximum g forces, and engineering solutions that have
been chosen in the construction of such racking.  And how well this
has worked in practice.

Dust control is a major problem in this city.  Having tried to
design and implement various methods of dust control over the years
and failing to achieve good results for the reasons given by Lisa, I
am now specifying that the racking be enclosed in sealable cabinets.
The reasons for and extent of sealing the cabinets is the subject of
considerable research and development.  There has been a recent
conference addressing this issue, see:
<URL:http://hjem.get2net.dk/ryhl/>

C.V.Horie
Keeper of Conservation
The Manchester Museum


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:6
                   Distributed: Friday, July 21, 2000
                        Message Id: cdl-14-6-002
                                  ***