Polymers in Conservation

A major triumph of the industrial revolution was the introduction of new materials.

Building on the wealth of natural products from the living world, innovators extracted and modified these materials to create usable products. Organic chemistry progressed, enabling materials to be constructed synthetically.

The process of innovation, application and occasionally redundancy continues apace.

Many of these materials are polymers, such as fibres, plastics, adhesives and coatings.

Others are supplementary to the polymers, such as dye and plasticiser additives.

Incorporated in objects, these form the material evidence for much of human history and discovery over the past two centuries.

Preservation of the objects depends on the survival of the materials of which they are composed.

Improved techniques of storage are required in order to reduce changes in the polymers.

Processes of deterioration must be understood to specify these techniques and also to reconstruct the original state from the altered survivals.

The Centre for Archival Polymeric Materials has carried out innovative research in this field and has welcomed the increasing recognition of the problems worldwide. This volume brings together papers on all aspects of a common problem.

The authors also represent the life cycle of an object, from the academic scientist understanding and developing new materials, through the manufacturer, to the private collector and finally the museum.

Only by such collaboration will the achievements of recent history be preserved for posterity.