<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">"Thereafter, however, we switched to some form of synthetic glue that is much harder to remove, requiring acetone and thus a fume hood. Not progress, then..."</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div>Unless, of course, you were trying to recover the ledgers from a flood... :)<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">-Dean<br>-- <br>Dean Pentcheff<br><a href="mailto:pentcheff@gmail.com" target="_blank">pentcheff@gmail.com</a></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="mailto:dpentche@nhm.org" target="_blank">pentcheff@nhm.org</a><br><a href="https://research.nhm.org/disco" target="_blank">https://research.nhm.org/disco</a></div><div dir="ltr"><img src="http://research.nhm.org/images/DISCO_lockup_4color-300.png"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 2:48 PM Callomon,Paul <<a href="mailto:prc44@drexel.edu">prc44@drexel.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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Just a follow-on from the discussion on original labels: it's a axiom of conservation work that you should never use a glue if you don't have to. If there's a purely mechanical way to fasten two things together (like string or an attached Mylar envelope) that
should always be used. Even "reversible" glues like Paraloid (Acryloid) B-72 will bind fibers and cause distortions through differential shrink rates that can't be "reversed".</div>
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A glue story: I just spent several weeks detaching all the labels, letters, invoices and other bits of paper that had been glued into our collection ledgers over the 100-plus years of their use, before sending the books off for scanning. From the 1890s up until
about 1935, our folks used a remarkably "reversible" natural resin of some kind that still dissolves in water from a hard, glass-like state to a sticky solution; adding more water thins it further, allowing even tissue-thin notes to be safely peeled off the
underlying page.<br>
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Thereafter, however, we switched to some form of synthetic glue that is much harder to remove, requiring acetone and thus a fume hood. Not progress, then...</div>
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<div style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:13px"><b>Paul Callomon</b><br>
<i>Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates</i><br>
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<font face="Verdana"><b>Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia</b></font><br>
<i><a href="mailto:callomon@ansp.org" target="_blank">callomon@ansp.org</a> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170</i><br>
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