Volume 4, Number 5
Nov 1991

News

Permanence Testing of Stamp Collectors' Materials

About two years ago, the Collectors Club of Chicago set up the Arthur Salm Foundation, with the aid of a grant from the family of a deceased member, for the purpose of testing the permanence and durability of supplies being sold to stamp collectors on the open market. With interest from the $50,000 endowment, an annual testing program is being carried out, and reports are published each year on March 4, Mr. Salm's birthday.

The first report of the Arthur Salm Foundation appeared in March, giving permanence test data from an independent, nationally recognized paper testing lab, on 64 stamp album pages. The names and suppliers of the album pages are given, along with test results on each, but the pages are not evaluated or compared in Consumer Reports fashion. Six album pages had a pH below 5.0 before aging, and many had a negligible alkaline reserve even though their pH ranged up to 7.5. No groundwood or reduced sulfur was found in any of the pages, but the testing lab found alum every time they looked for it. The grain direction of each page was noted, because they realize that a page will perform better and last longer if the grain is parallel to the binding.

Similar reports will be prepared every year. Tests are currently under way on hinges, mounts and pages with plastic covers. Tools and equipment, as well as paper and supplies, will be tested in the future.

The foundation is an independent non-profit corporation, based at the Collectors Club of Chicago, 1029 North Dearborn St., Chicago, IL 60610. The album page report is available without charge to interested collectors upon receipt of a business length envelope with 29,t postage on it.

Les Winick, who has been coordinating all this, wrote in June to say, "The reaction from the report is very interesting. We mailed out 2,600 so far, which is a fantastic response. We've received dozens of letters praising the report and its value for stamp collectors. Three album page distributors wrote that they are going to change suppliers to acid free. One distributor said that he was waiting for the report and will start by using only alkaline paper."

Canadian Conservators Get Paper Permanence Committee

Although most conservators work on paintings and other museum artifacts rather than books and paper, the national organizations of conservators in two countries have recently been promoting the production and use of permanent paper. In Australia, they have been lobbying for several years for laws to encourage this, and at their most recent annual meeting, a quarter of all the papers were on paper permanence

The following notice was sent out by the Canadian conservators' organization in August:

"In recognition of the significance and magnitude of the permanent paper issue, the International Institute for Conservation - Canadian Group (IIC-CG) established the Committee on Paper Permanence in the spring of 1991.

"The Purpose of the committee is to advocate the importance of permanent paper and its role in preventing future problems in paper-based collections. We aim to:

• Promote awareness of the issue of paper permanence and its implications for the preservation of cultural heritage on paper in all its forms;
• Collect and disseminate information on activities, research and developments relating to paper permanence;
• Encourage the production and use of permanent paper;
• Identify the various agencies, organizations and institutions whose coordinated efforts need to be encouraged to achieve the goals identified above.

"Contact: Holly Simpson, Chair, Committee on Paper Permanence, c/o City of Toronto Archives, City Clerk's Department, 100 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5H 2N2 (416/392-7483; fax 416/392-6990)."

Pulping and Bleaching

• The sulfite process was the first chemical pulping process. Developed around the time of the Civil War, it was not used in this country until the late 1880s. At first it used acid to delignify; then the neutral sulfite (NSSC) process came into use; and now it is also used in the alkaline pH range. A recently developed alkaline sulfite process, called ASAM (alkaline sulfite with the addition of anthraquinone and methanol), has been developed in Hamburg at the Institute for Wood Chemistry and Chemical Technology. It is said to work with all lignocellulosic raw materials and to cause no pollution. The pulps exhibit low residual lignin content, high yield, good strength and easy bleachability. It is described in "Actual Status of the ASAM-Process," Patt et al., a paper presented at the 24th EUCEPA Conference 1990.
• APMP (Alkaline Peroxide Mechanical Pulping) combines the function of bleaching and pulping. The chips are impregnated with bleaching chemicals before they are refined. The high-yield pulp produced is said (in an ad) to compare favorably with CTMP (chemi-thermomechanical pulp). A paper in the September Tappi Journal (p. 254) says it is environmentally friendly and best suited for low-density hardwoods, like aspen. If it is used with high-density woods, the pulp has low strength. For the method to work, heavy metal ions must be removed.
• Union Camp has been developing an ozone-based paper bleaching process in its Eastover pilot plant, and is now ready to install it in a large pulp unit in its Isle of Wight mill. The ozone process eliminates almost all dioxin, ends discoloration of downstream water, and removes lignin without damaging the cellulose. Union Camp will license the process to other paper companies. (Dec. 1990 PIMA Magazine