ARHIVSKI VJESNIK 37. (ZAGREB, 1994.)

Strana - 82

T. Mušnjak, The protection of archival material in war conditions, Arh. vjesn., god. 37 (1994) str. 79-86 ATTENTION: We did not find any data about experiences of freezing of wax seals in available professional literature. Researches in this field have not been conducted till now in the Laboratory for conservation and restoration of the Croatian State Archives. Since documents on parchment do have mostly pendent wax seals, it is forbidden to subject them to the procedure of deep freezing after soaking. Charters on parchment should be separated and dried at the room temperature; raised temperatures should be used by no means. If we shall have enough room, parchments should be taken to pieces and put on newspapers, blotting papers or leaves of clean paper which should be changed more frequently in order to dry documents faster. If room is too small, charters can be put together one on another, but they should be separated by leaves of newspapers or blotting papers which should be changed more frequently. Wiping of wax seals by a soft rag would be enough. Deep freezing of photo documents (films, microfilms, photos) is not recommended. Cleaning and drying of them should be entrusted with specialized institutions, respectively to laboratories. The natural drying of archival material written on paper For drying one should choose in advance foreseen shady and roofed places or indoors where a good air circulation is possible. At first one should separate the worthless material (boxes, folders etc.) and untie bundles. Every bundle has to have visible designation to make easier later classifying. An archivist should be present at this stage of work. Documents are dried in the lying position in smaller bundles under which should be placed newspapers, blotting papers, newspaper board or some other available material which can absorb the moisture. During drying of documents one should turn over leaves more frequently, but with the due caution because they must not be damaged. For the acceleration of drying it is desirable to insert a dry material between every 50 or 150 leaves which will absorb unnecessary moisture. The mud and dirtiness of a different kind we should not clean out of documents. If it is necessary, it has to be done with the exceptional caution in order to prevent additional damages. Archives including restoration workshops should leave this phase of the work to the workers of a laboratory. No notes on wet material should be written because they could be damaged. A room where a drying is conducted should not be too warm, as mouldwould appear on wet material. When a colony of mould appears, and, as a precaution, it is necessary to accomplish a disinfection. 82