Mold

Nicole Prawl <nicoleprawl_234<-at->hotmail<.>com> writes

>Recently we had an outbreak of mold in one of our main reading
>rooms. It was controlled for a while and then it came back. ...

Leather bindings of books that have been treated with any leather
treatment preparations that the contains neatsfoot oil are
notoriously prone to forming wax blooms.  These look very much like
fungal growth.  If your problem is related mainly to leather bound
books it should be determined if you have a fungal or wax bloom
problem.

The wax bloom will disappear under slight friction were as fungal
material will not.  Also a small sample under the microscope at 400x
will show wax crystals or fungal structures that are mainly circular
conidial structures -in the hundreds- all the same shape and size.

I know of two large libraries whose leather problem was caused by
the same commercial neatsfoot product that had been used in the past
for leather treatment.  High quality neatsfoot oil requires in its
preparation that oils that are normally in the mixture that do no
remain as an oil at room temperature are extracted.  If not these
oils will come to the surface and form the crystalline bloom.

Dr. Mary-Lou Florian
Research Associate
Royal BC Museum Conservation
Scientist Emerata


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 27:19
                Distributed: Wednesday, October 30, 2013
                       Message Id: cdl-27-19-003
                                  ***