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<p class="MsoNormal">Folks,<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Many of our older mollusk shells were originally glued to boards with Gum Arabic. In the past, we’ve removed this waxy substance with warm water and mechanical action, but I’ve been looking for a less physical method. I’ve now found that
steeping the shells in acetone for a few hours dissolves the gum nicely, with no movement needed. Does anyone else have experience with this? We know from past work that acetone does not affect shells beyond driving out any residual water in or on them.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black">Paul Callomon</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black"><br>
<i>Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates</i></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:black">Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black"><br>
<i><a href="mailto:callomon@ansp.org"><span style="color:blue">callomon@ansp.org</span></a> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170</i></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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