Subject: Drying sand
Deborah la Camera <dlacamera [at] mfa__org> writes >I am seeking thorough references to the historic use of sand as a >means to quickly dry fresh writing ink. In the writing of >manuscripts, sand was sprinkled on the wet ink of recently written >pages and shaken off in order to speed up drying. Presumably, if >the ink was tacky enough, some of that sand would remain loosely >adhered to the surface of the ink lines. I believe that I have >identified a late 17th early 18th century Italian drawing on which >sporadic crystals, akin to drying sand remain loosely adhered to the >surface of the ink. However, SEM/EDS analysis of those crystals >yielded results that I was not expecting. Rather than silica, the >crystals proved to be a covalent potassium/calcium sulfate. Deborah la Camera's analysis of the 'drying sand' in question reminds me that sometimes sand is not what it appears to be. The mineral species she has found do occur in particulate forms similar to and even called 'sand'. The best example I can think of is White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico. Here the so-called sand turns out to be particulate gypsum! I imagine that this is not a unique occurrence. But then this raises the question: Does sulfate 'sand' have better drying properties than silica sand? Could the selection of this 'sand' have been purposeful? Just a thought. Steven Prins Santa Fe, NM *** Conservation DistList Instance 17:64 Distributed: Thursday, April 1, 2004 Message Id: cdl-17-64-003 ***Received on Tuesday, 30 March, 2004