ARHIVSKI VJESNIK 37. (ZAGREB, 1994.)

Strana - 83

T. Mušnjak, The protection of archival material in war conditions, Arh. vjesn., god. 37 (1994) str. 79-86 The disinfection is executed by 5% solution of thymol in 96% technical ethyl alcohol. The solution is made by dissolving of 50 grams of thymol in 1 litre of alcohol. After the complete melting of thymol the solution can be dispersed all over the material by usual sprayers for flowers or can be brought on by a tampon. One should be exceptionally cautious when the disinfection of the material written by contemporary inks that can be melted in alcohol is on the table: they should not be sprayed by the solution but should be smeared by a tampon where there is no text. The disinfection must not be conducted on metal shelves since this solution dissolves the protective lacquer. The disinfection team should have gloves and masks and the other protective clothes. The room where disinfection is executed should be closed after the completion of the work, so thymol can function better, that is to say it would not evaporate. The artificial drying of archival material written on paper The kilns which can serve for drying of material, and capacities of the kilns should be provided for in advance. The drying conditions are described earlier. Materials on shelves in the kiln must be separated into smaller bundles and dried in a lying position. Leaves should be turned over more frequently in the process of drying. After the completion of drying materials have to be put together into bundles, wrapped by a newspaper board no. 40, corded, clearly designated by water-proof pencils and deposited into dry repositories. For wrapping up bundles a newspaper board is recommended because it is strong and pliant enough. It can be sheared which is important since it is sold in sheets of size 100 X 70 cm. If this board is not at the hand, we can use corrugated board or more layers of wrapping papers etc. Dried materials are not allowed to be returned to wet repositories where they were soaked in any of ways mentioned before. The deep freezing of archival material For the deep freezing of material it will be necessary to purchase chambers of big capacities which can be found in ice cream factories, big markets, meat industry, big department stores or discount stores which sell foodstuffs. Freezing chambers and their capacities should be determined in advance. Freezing conditions are described in chapter 3. One should assure lorries for a transportation of wet material to chambers by arrangement with authorized crisis headquarters. The procedure of placing of material into chambers is very simple: boxes and books must be put together neatly on palettes in lying position. Boxes must not be joined together in order to prevent their sticking during freezing. There must be 1 cm of free space left around every box. After all space on palette is covered, one should put polyethylene foil all over boxes (the best solution is to purchase a foil of thickness 0,03 mm 83