Drying of books

Koppers "Book Keeping" Process. In view of the limitation of the Wei T o process, chemists at the Koppers Company developed a "Book Keeper" process by dispersing submicron particles of basic metal oxides, hydroxides or salts of calcium, magnesium, or zinc, in a suitable gas such as Freon or liquid medium, so that the active chemicals can be transferred and deposited electrostatically on the surface of paper. It also does not require pre-drying of books as is required for both the DEZ and Wei T o processes. The testing results appear satisfactory as shown in Table I. The major concern with this process is the distribution of the alkaline reserve on the paper. It appears the process deposits alkaline chemicals on the surface of paper and achieves surface deacidification. However, acid formed in the core of the paper is not neutralized. Koppers intends to prove the degrees of chemical penetration and neutralization of acid in the center layers by examination of the cross-section of paper by SEM. 

An Evaluation of Recent Developments for the Mass Drying of Books... 

Q) Microwave and dielectric energy has not been successfully applied to drying of books printed on coated paper—i.e., starch, casein, clays, etc. (5). 

R) Microwave and dielectric energy is not suitable for mass drying of books because of the invariable presence of metal in the form of clips, staples, foil, and even iron and copper in the paper itself and the higher reaction to this energy by leather, some adhesives, etc. (6). 

Peter Waters, based on his experience at the National Records Center fire in St. Louis, the fire at Temple University, and elsewhere, is satisfied that freeze and vacuum drying operations do not damage cellulose in paper (8) and that these methods are the best now available for mass drying of books. 

During the past 10 years there has been considerable investigation of methods for mass drying of books ranging from reevaluation of the... 

Sediment deposition on the seafloor traps interstitial water. After deposition, complex reactions take place in the sediment, most of them fueled by the decay of organic matter, such as sulfate reduction, denitrification,... Because of fast diffusion rates of most cations in seawater, the presence of interstitial water makes exchange between overlying sedimentary layers a much easier process than if sediment deposition was dry. The book by Berner (1980) is entirely dedicated to these processes and only a short example is given here. 

This process does not require drying of the book and the test results showed that treated books are satisfactorily deacidified and buffered, with no adverse effects on paper, print, covers or bindings. 

The drying of solutions and the solidification of melts form an integral part of many of the size enlargement methods discussed in other chapters of this book. These are common mechanisms to harden agglomerates and prepare them for further processing and use. A number of the machines men-... 

Flink and Thomas in their report on the use of microwave energy (14) (200 watts at 2450 MHz) and flowing air for water vapor removal admit that to avoid charring of book paper, the drying operation had to be stopped before the books became bone dry. ... 

Consider deacidification of books during a mass drying operation. 

Thomas, D., Flink, J., Microwave Drying of Water Soaked Books, J. 

Table I shows the overall variation in the weights when the simulated-flood procedure was applied to similar pairs of identical books over an 8-mo period. The simulated flood was applied to these books as if they were loosely packed on the shelf—i.e., stored with minimum pressure applied to them. The relationship of each book s dry weight with the temperature and relative humidity of the room appears to have been comparable. The variability of the wetting action of both types of books is also similar however, the variances (the standard deviation squared) associated with the weights of the drained books are significantly different (statistical significance reported at the 95% confidence level unless otherwise noted) by use of an F-test (3). Since the handling of book pairs—i.e., one uncoated- and one coated-paper book—was the same in preparing samples for subsequent restoration studies, it might be concluded that drainage water from the books containing uncoated paper could be different from books with coated paper.

Preparation of Books and a Brief Description of the Drying Process... 

Visual Examination. Since the visual evaluation in this study involved considerable judgment, a panel of evaluators was recruited. The panel included two librarians, a paper conservator, a scientist, and a staff member familiar with the quality of library books in circulation. Each member was given a description of the major and subcategories listed in Table V. Panelists were shown examples of books illustrating each of the criteria to be rated. After several training sessions to develop consistency in ratings, the panel rated the complete set of dried books which had received different restoration treatment. 

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