Private collectors

For many years, cosmochemistry depended on the chance discovery of meteorites - either witnessed falls and serendipitous finds, or the dogged determination of a few private collectors who systematically searched for them. That changed in 1969, when Japanese explorers in Antarctica led by Masaru Yoshida stumbled onto meteorites exposed on bare ice. American geologist William Cassidy immediately recognized an opportunity, and with support from the National Science Foundation he mounted a joint expedition with the Japanese to the Allan Hills region of Antarctica in 1977 to recover meteorites. This was the first of many expeditions, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and headed first by Cassidy and later by Ralph Harvey, that have returned to Antarctica every year to collect meteorites (Fig. 1.11). The Japanese have operated a parallel field program in... 

This book is intended as a guide to natural materials in all their various forms, both natural and as they are likely to be found in collections. Chapters are devoted to the major types of natural materials, their properties and the products derived from them. It is intended to be a resource for anyone working with natural materials in any type of collection, including students, private collectors, and museum professionals. 

Private collectors wish to preserve the artistic, historical and financial values of their olgects and artworks. With the dramatic increase in monetary value of modem art since 2000, art insurance companies are also concerned with the short useful lifetime of plastics and the limited options for their conservation today. In January 2003 AXA Art Insurance funded a research laboratory and research into the conservation and restoration of modem plastic furniture at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany (Albus et al., 2007). Artists are also stakeholders in the conservation of their own and their feUow professionals works. The durability of an artwork, as well as providing a guarantee for the collector, affects the artist s reputation and immortality (Hummelen, 1999). Durability is affected by artists selection of appropriate materials and techniques. The artist David Hockney is credited with saying Love will decide what is kept, and science will decide how it is kept (Corzo, 1999). 

Potential degradation markers for video and audio tapes, which contain polyester and polyurethane, have been investigated recently as part of the Presto Space project (Thiebaut et ak, 2006). Chemical markers investigated included pH of the tapes surfaces, which was expected to fall with the onset of hydrolysis, while mechanical markers included the loss of cohesion between the various materials which comprise tapes. Because few cultural institutions and private collectors have access to analytical instruments, effective degradation markers should be based on readily detectable properties such as colour... 

Pressure, particularly from the commercial art market, private collectors and organizers of exhibitions, is likely to result in more research into interventive conservation as well as restoration treatments. In the past, privately funded plastics research has targeted specific artworks or collections rather than plastics types (Albus et al., 2007). Where findings are made accessible to all interested... 

Ludwig Boltzmann was bom into the family of a Viennese tax collector and educated at his parent s home by private tutor until high school. After completing his PhD (on the kinetic theory of gases, with Josef Stefan) at Vienna, he became full Professor of Mathematical... 

Thermal collectors on the roofs of private homes are usually flat and stationary units that serve to provide residences with heat and hot water. The... 

The generating capacity of solar collector systems used for private homes ranges from 5 to 10 kWp The yearly energy bill of an average household in the north-central United States is about 4,500 ( 2,500 for heat and hot water, 2,000 for electricity). (See http //www.findsolar.com/index. php page=rightforme to obtain more data on the energy use of American households.)... 

Solar and geothermal systems can also be combined when the size of the system is small, such as in cases of "energy-free" private homes, where the combined goal of the solar and geothermal systems is to continuously meet the electricity needs of the home. Figure 2.103 illustrates such a system. In that system the main load variable is the insolation (the solar heat input to the hot water collectors). The changes in insolation are reflected by the... 

There are two main problems in recovering economically usehil materials from MSW. First, MSW is found as a highly heterogeneous mixture which is extremely hard to sort. At least, this is the case in the city of Nairobi, even in the area in which I live. Second, the materials are not found in sufficient quantities in a particular place. Rather, they are thinly spread over a very wide area and, in most cases, some of the places are not easily accessible because of poor roads or none at all. Consequently, private garbage collectors do not collect garbage from such places. In any case, most of residents in these areas cannot afford the collection fees charged by private garbage collectors. 

The term virtuoso was used for wealthy patrons of natural philosophy who enthusiastically undertook miscellaneous projects, without rigor or training. Indiscriminate hoarders and collectors of anything and everything, the virtuosi amassed private museums or cabinets (Haynes 1994, pp. 35 9). 

Have you a record of any being imported by a museum or a private vehicle collector " Landon McCullock asked patiently. 

This chapter will first present the options which are widely used today for slowing the rate of degradation of plastics (inhihitive conservation) and then those for invasively stabilizing and strengthening them (interventive conservation). Interventive treatments are used hy private dealers, collectors and art insurance companies to maintain the commercial value and original appearance of plastics artworks. Some interventive treatments are considered restoration rather than conservation. 

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