We had the case of a corporate technical library damaged from a broken water pipe after an earthquake. Flooded the library and waterlogged all the documents on the bottom shelves. They were recovered and almost perfectly restored by vacuum freeze drying the books. Basically the books are frozen, then using a vacuum chamber the water is pulled out of the books by sublimating the ice directly to water vapor. Almost perfect restoration. Not cost effective for 1 book, but for all the books on the bottom shelves in a library? an absolute miracle or recovery..
Cool (and handy)!
ReplyDeleteWe had the case of a corporate technical library damaged from a broken water pipe after an earthquake. Flooded the library and waterlogged all the documents on the bottom shelves. They were recovered and almost perfectly restored by vacuum freeze drying the books. Basically the books are frozen, then using a vacuum chamber the water is pulled out of the books by sublimating the ice directly to water vapor. Almost perfect restoration. Not cost effective for 1 book, but for all the books on the bottom shelves in a library? an absolute miracle or recovery..
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/3.-emergency-management/3.12-freezing-and-drying-wet-books-and-records
Thank you for including the link!
DeleteThis is great!
ReplyDelete