[NHCOLL-L:1607] RE: road transport of wet specimens

[Simmons, John E]

You may have two problems.  Depending on local regulations, this item may
also have to treated as a hazardous substance (you didn't mention what the
fluid was).

As for the shipping, you can either pack it very carefully yourself, using a
large container and lots of soft, shock-absorbing packing material (such as
plastic "peanuts") or hire a fine arts shipper who is experienced with
shipping very heavy, fragile things.  You might check with a museum in your
area which ships things such as ceramics to see if they can provide you with
any shipping tips.  Fluid preserved specimens usually transport well, but
you do want to do whatever you can to minimize vibrations and heat during
the trip.

Good luck, and please post a follow-up to the list to let us al know how you
handled this and how it worked.

--John

John E. Simmons
Collection Manager, Natural History Museum
and
Coordinator, Historical Administration and Museum Studies Program
University of Kansas
Dyche Hall
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7561
Phone 785-864-4508
FAX 785-864-5335
jsimmons at ku.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: MAGGIE REILLY [mailto:Mreilly at museum.gla.ac.uk]
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 6:24 AM
To: nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu
Cc: Linda Morris
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:1605] road transport of wet specimens 


Hello Folks

I wonder if anyone can offer advice or help on this: we hope to lend 
another institution, amongst other things,  2 wet -preserved juvenile 
shark skeletons, both mounted in rectangular-section glass display 
jars with sealed-on glass plate lids. The specimens are tied onto glass 
backplates within the jar and the backplates are braced against the 
sides of the jar with rods set top and bottom. Road transport by van 
over ca 180 miles is necessary to get the specimens from us to them. I 
have concerns about properly packing these jars for transport to 
minimise the risk to the actual specimens from vibration. How best can 
one do this? We are not keen to remove the specimens from the jars 
and pack tehm separately. The dimensions of the jars are 80x14x12cm 
and 56x19x12cm. 

Thanks for any help

Maggie Reilly

Maggie Reilly
Curator of Zoology
Hunterian Museum - Zoology Section
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ 
Scotland, U.K.
Tel: +44 (0)141 330 4772
Fax: +44 (0)141 330 5971
mreilly at museum.gla.ac.uk
Hunterian Museum web site - http://www.gla.ac.uk/Museum/