[NHCOLL-L:4099] RE: Possible replacement to alcohol storage?

[John E Simmons]

This is a very interesting discussion, and I am pleased to see the level of
interest in the topic. I would like to add a few points:

1.  Museums lack proper studies of what happens to containers of 70% ethanol
or "10% formalin" during a fire.  Data exists for storage of retail liquor
(which averages less than 15% alcohol) and bulk storage of 95% alcohol in
large drums, but museum collections and specimens on exhibit fall in
between.  The cost of such studies is very high--it would be great if
Factory Mutual or some outfit like that would take up the cause.  We know
that ethanol is flammable, but we also know that ethanol fumes disperse very
quickly from an opened container or a spill, greatly reducing the fire
hazard.  We really don't know how much of a danger the specimens pose, but
we do know it is far less than 95% alcohol (the rules for 95% alcohol are
frequently applied to museum collections).  In their defense, we must
remember that the regulatory agencies have to make a guess by extrapolating
from existing regulations, which usually leaves all parties unhappy.

2.  We need to keep in mind the difference between a preservative (a
chemical that prevents deterioration from occurring, such as alcohol or
formaldehyde) and a "holding solution" that might be used in the short term
while a fluid preserved specimen is on exhibit or used in a classroom (e.g.,
Novec, or the available proprietary fluids such as Wardsafe or Carosafe that
contain glycols, phenols, and other compounds).  The "holding solutions"
don't preserve specimens long-term and may be very harmful to the specimen.

3.  The literature on fluid preservation is full of recommendations of
oddball concoctions that various individuals have claimed are good
preservatives, but most of them are not.  To avoid adding even more
anecdotal recipes to the mix, museums should follow the lead of the
Smithsonian and collect all the data they can from experiments with new
fluids.

--John

John E. Simmons
Museologica
128 E. Burnside Street
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 16823-2010
simmons.johne at gmail.com
303-681-5708
and
Adjunct Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
19 Deike Building
University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-2709
jes67 at psu.edu
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