THERMAL-ANALYSIS AND THE SCIENTIFIC CONSERVATION OF CULTURAL MATERIALS - A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF CONSERVATION TREATMENT ON THE FANSHAWE ARCHIVE

Prior to treatment, letters dating from 1665-66 were characterised usi ng SEM, FTIR, ESCA or XPS, TG, TMA and DLTMA. All three papers were si milar in composition and were basically cellulosic materials. Two whic h had been sent from Lisbon contained trace amounts of Fe and Cu; thes e impurities were also present in a letter sent from Dublin. All three letters had been written with iron gall ink. The letter from Dublin h ad an additional feature in the ink in the form of small bright specks of mica. The papers were examined after conservation treatment using the above same techniques in an attempt both to determine and quantify any changes which had occurred during the treatment process. Scanning electron micrographs showed that pronounced changes had occurred to t he surfaces of the treated papers. With XPS it was possible to measure the change in the surface composition of the papers which occurred on treatment. It was also found that the treatment reduced the thermal s tability of the papers in all three cases.