19th century wooden water pipe rings

My museum is working on an exhibit on 19th century Baltimore wooden
water pipes, how early fire hydrants were connected to them and how
fire engines were hooked up. There is evidence that the pipes were
connected together using iron rings or bands. Such pipes and
hydrants caused major problems for the city in 1904 when a massive
fire roared through downtown Baltimore. One major problem that
occurred was that most of the cities that provided mutual aid to
Baltimore could not connect up to our hydrant system. There was no
standardization of such hydrant connections until 1912--a direct
result (albeit a bit slow) of the Baltimore Fire.

We have just had donated to us 2 of these iron rings, which are very
rusty and had been in a barn/garage for many years in Fells Point.
They were stored with some of the original wooden pipe, which was
attacked by termites and was thrown away by the donor. Both rings
have some white excretions on them, and I am not sure if it is
paint, bird poop, or what.

We would like to put the rings on display with a piece of wooden
pipe that is a "repro". However, I am concerned about whether we
should try and remove the rust (ie. wire brushing it), clean the
iron with some sort of rust remover/inhibitor and then coat the iron
with something to better preserve it.

We aren't looking for something that involves lots of money and/or
time, these will just be for display. But I know they need some work
done on them to better care for them.

Melissa Marsh Heaver
Registrar/Researcher/Web Manager/Shop Buyer
Fire Museum of Maryland
1301 York Road
Lutherville, MD 21093
410-321-7500


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:6
                  Distributed: Saturday, June 26, 2010
                        Message Id: cdl-24-6-015
                                  ***