Conservation around the Millennium (Hungarian National Museum, 2001)

Pages - 135

storage several of the volumes suffered serious mechanical damages. However this is nothing compared to the biological and chemical damage of the volumes. Some of the wooden boards were completely destroyed because they were infested with insects. Paper materials were severely attacked by mould on their full surface, and their deterioration was in an advanced stage. Pages stuck together and became brittle or mouldered. Leather bindings absorbed a lot of water and became swollen. The tanning materials were washed out and several leather bindings basically turned back to raw leather. On metal mounts corrosive processes began which destroyed iron mounts completely. Brass mounts showed only minor corrosive decay.

FIGURES ON THE ETHYLENE OXIDE BINDING ABILITY OF CERTAIN MATERIALS

3. Dehumidifying and inspection of the books

Restorers and researchers working in the field of restoration in North-America and western Europe have been looking at the use of ethylene oxide with growing concern for the past 10-15 years, because research showed that this gas, in case of continual subjection, could cause cancer, damaged chromosomes and they were found to even damage the reproductive system. The gas was even banned in certain countries. It is a well-known fact that ethylene oxide destroyed mould along with its spores and insect along with their larva. ÁNTSZ had decided to use this gas because at present no other agents are available having a similarly complex effect.

Due to this characteristic this gas is being used for sanitation purposes and is still being used to disinfect collections of art. Disinfection is carried out in a cabin under vacuum. The temperature, relative humidity, pressure and length applied can be determined depending on the characteristics of materials being disinfected in order to avoid damage. However, while objects disinfected with ethylene oxide in hospitals are made out of non or only slightly porous materials, such as metal, glass or plastic, most of the pieces of art or valuable documents are usually made out porous materials and thus are able to bind some amounts of ethylene oxide for longer periods.

Then later the bound ethylene oxide is gradually loosed and enters the air, which contaminates the environment (or in other

words the storage room, the reading room 4. Packaged for disinfecting