Lecture 2 Chapter 1: Paper

The Basics ► All materials are either:  Organic- composed of plant or animal materials  Inorganic- composed of rock or mineral composition

Organic ► Paper ► Leather ► Plastic (extracted from plant and animal sources) ► Textiles

Inorganic ► Stone ► Glass ► Ceramic ► Metal Source: reveals-stone-tablet-handwriting-in-a-flash.html

Early Writing Surfaces ► Clay tablets ► Basalt slat ► Papyrus ► Leather ► Paper types Plates vi & vii of the Edwin Smith Papyrus at the Rare Book Room, New York Academy of Medicine, source

Clay and Basalt: ► Clay Tablets:  Mesopatamia ► Basalt:  Example, the Rosetta Stone (196 BC)  Discovered in 1799 ► Issues:  Very stable but...  If left to elements, information can erode away

Papyrus: ► Primarily Egypt ► Thick paper-like material produced from the Papyrus plant.  Paper-like = cellulose in nature ► Has the advantage of being relatively cheap to produce. ► Amatl or amate  Organic material used by Meso-Americans, especially Mayans.

Papyrus (continued): ► Papyrus is made form the stem of the plant  The outer rind is first stripped off and the sticky fibrous inner pith is cut lengthwise into thin strips.  The strips are then placed side-by-side on a hard surface with their edges overlapping. Another layer of strips is laid on top at a right angle. Strips are soaked in water.  While still moist, the two layers are hammered together into a single sheet.

Preservation Concerns with Papyrus: ► In a dry climate like Egypt, papyrus is stable, formed as it is of highly rot-resistant cellulose. ► Storage in humid conditions can result in molds or bugs destroying the material. ► Is fragile and susceptible to both moisture and excessive dryness. ► Went out of use, especially as writing took off in moisture-rich climates.

Skin Materials: ► Includes leather and parchment ► Type of animal and processing method determine the quality of the skin material ► Leather is stable in a slightly acidic environment Portion of a parchment leaf from a liturgical ms., probably an antiphonary, containing text and music for the first words of the antiphon for the first psalm sung at vespers on the vigil of the solemnity of the Ascension. Source:

Leather: ► Produced in Egypt since 4th dynasty ► Writing on one side ► Leather is still used in binding Source: k_bindings.jpg

Leather: ► Types Commonly Used in Books:  Calf- A delicate, often decorated, leather used until the end of the 18th Century  Goat  Levant- Leather from goat, sheep and seal skins with a characteristic shrunken grain pattern produced during tanning  Morocco- A vegetable-tanned goatskin  Suede- A leather finish produced by separating the fibers, giving the leather a nap by abrading with sandpaper or emery wheel  Other: Pigskin, Sheepskin

Preservation Concerns with Leather ► Red Rot- (as defined by National Archives UK) a type of deterioration of the surface of tanned leather occurring when certain (usually vegetable) tannins degrade to a fine red powder Source: aq/redrot.htm

Preservation Concerns with Leather ► Leather is naturally acidic ► Leather produced in the 17 th Century may have residual sulphuric acid

Parchment: ► Writing on both sides of leather ► Thin almost opaque ► Became the staple writing material of the Middle Ages ► Made from sheep, goats, calves, deer, any mammal

Parchment: ► Parchment tends to be alkaline (as opposed to acidic) ► Skin of sheep or calf ► Not as expensive as vellum

Vellum: ► Finest parchment ► Skin of calves and kids ► Skin of unborn animals ► Expensive Source:

Preservation Concerns with Vellum: ► Should typically be stored in a stable environment  Constant temperature and 30% RH ► If stored in an environment with less than 11% humidity, it becomes fragile, brittle, and susceptible to mechanical stresses ► If RH higher than 40%, the material becomes vulnerable to fungus or mold growth as well as gelation

Paper “ I write down everything I want to remember. That way, instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on.” Beryl Pfizer Beryl Pfizer

Paper: ► Invention of paper, as we know it today, is often credited to Ts’ai Lun, a Chinese court official ► Dated 104 or 105 AD ► The product Lun created was a precursor of the cotton and linen rag paper that dominated Europe and America before the Industrial Revolution ► He used raw materials from a variety of sources

Precursors to Today’s book? ► Prior to 5 th century – rolls (papyrus) ► Codex  13 th century  Monastic scribes ► 15 th Century – Block Books.  Papermaking first reached Europe in the 12 th century.  Demand really took off with the invention of the printing press.  Movable type allowed for mass production.  Example: Gutenberg Bible (1455)

Prior to 17 th Century: ► Paper made primarily from cotton rags ► Paper was free from impurities, strong, and long lasting ► Made by hand, however, it was time consuming and expensive

19 th Century: ► More mechanization in the creation of paper ► 1860’s wood pulp paper ► Stress from the machines produced less stable paper with a considerably shorter life than the previous products ► First use of wood pulp dates to 1872:  logs are turned to pulp, bleached, pressed, and coated with acid  Acids lead to the destruction of the paper

Organic Nature of Paper: ► The study of paper degradation is primarily a study based on the study of the deterioration of cellulose

Cellulose Molecule Source: se-D-TPNR

Paper (continued)

Paper Degradation (continued) ► The modern standard is cellulose derived from wood ► Requires aggressive processing to liberate cellulose ► Suffers damage in the process and becomes less stable ► Other factors which contribute:  Additives  Metals  Types of Ink

Paper (continued) ► Is it handmade vs. machine made paper? ► When/what era in which the paper was made? ► What kind paper is it and what was used to make it? ► Groundwood ► Chemical ► Recycled ► Permanent

Coated Paper: This is a multi-layer coated paper. Image showing three distinct layers on coated paper. The bottom layer is the paper substrate, the middle layer (21.0µm) a spray coating, and the top layer a final gloss finish (9.39µm). The large holes in the center are indicative of a faulty deposition in the coating process.

Coated Paper: As you can see by this view taken under an electron microscope, a coated paper bearing these qualities can potentially have many preservation issues. For instance, coated papers tend to adhere to each other when they come in contact with water.

Causes of Deterioration: Cellulose is degraded by three primary mechanisms: HydrolysisOxidationElimination

Causes of Deterioration: Hydrolysis ► Caused by contact with acid ► Most dominant reaction ► Responsible for most degradation of paper ► Kr/Hydrolysis.html

Causes of Deterioration: Oxidation ► Becomes relevant when cellulose comes into contact with metals or pollutants such as iron gall ink or ozone

Causes of Deterioration: Elimination ► Triggered by exposure to high pH ► Generally not relevant in the care of collections ► Becomes a factor when considering conservation treatments

Metals: ► Inorganic materials ► Form salts with nonmetals ► Rust ► Some metals, especially iron, copper, and platinum react with cellulose causing deterioration

Adhesives: ► Substances used to cause one material to adhere to another ► Can be naturally derived, such as wheat starch paste or synthetically derived, such as polyvinylalcohol

Cloth: ► Can be made of natural or synthetic materials ► Not responsible for many problems in general

Inks: ► Inks tend to bleed into paper ► May cause oxidization ► Iron gall ink is made of iron particles ► Black and white photographs generally have a metallic imaging compounds and paper supports

Paper History Review:

Paper and Reformatting Chapter 1: Paper But, wait! There’s more! Please see the next podcast for the discussion on reformatting.