This one-day conference, held at CCI in Ottawa on September 26, 1997, contained an interesting juxtaposition of three papers dealing with textile conservation issues and two papers dealing with textile degradation problems from the viewpoint of the textile industry.
Crystal Tait began the presentations with her paper "Effects of Conservation Freezing Treatments on Wool," jointly authored by Nancy Kerr. With freezing becoming such a standard treatment for pest control, and often being recommended as a holding operation in the event of flood damage, this was both interesting and relevant. The first part of the talk was an exhaustive and comprehensive presentation of how the samples were prepared and tested, and the second part was a presentation of the results. Reassuringly, but perhaps not surprisingly, all of the tests indicated that there was no significant change in the properties of the samples before and after freezing. However, it did rather beg the question as to why we should even think that wool, a very durable material, would be damaged when much more sensitive material such as human embryos are not.
The next presentation, "Ageing and Degradation from the Carpet Side," was by Clayton Legault (DuPont). I particularly enjoyed this because it introduced a concept I had not previously considered; i.e. that synthetic fibres may be partly degraded before they are made into carpets, garments, or used in conservation treatments. I know that the degradation of natural fibres can start before they are used (e.g. photodegradation of wool while still on the sheep, chemical degradation during retting, carbonization, dying, etc.), but it seems that small errors in manufacture can cause similar damage in synthetics, some of which will not be apparent till much later.
Shirley Ellis followed with her presentation "A Preliminary Investigation of the Tensile Properties of Yarn used for Textile Conservation." This was an interesting contribution to the ongoing debate concerning the choice of conservation material, which always tends to divide into two camps: natural vs. synthetic. This paper suggested that we ignore the source of the fibre and make informed decisions purely on the measurable properties, in this case the tensile properties and how they change with age. For me, this raised the question as to whether or not we really know what we want or need, and are there any standards that we could use to find out?
The importance of standards in the textile industry was demonstrated in the presentation of ITS bursaries and awards that followed lunch. Many of those honoured with fellowships were given them in recognition of their contribution to textile industry standards. The textile industry has a long history, and has always been (relatively) well resourced, so a large amount of the fundamental work has been covered and is constantly updated and revised. But in conservation we are still at the stage of deciding the right questions to ask, while at the same time spending most of our energies applying what are considered to be the best conservation techniques currently available.
After delegates had been shown the work and facilities at CCI, Irene Karsten spoke on "The Effect of Light Ageing on Selected Properties of Silk adhered to Sheer Polyester and Silk Backing." This project seemed to be somewhat thwarted by the complexity of evaluating changes in a layered structure, especially colour changes which to many may be the main consideration. This work is still in progress, and it will be interesting to see how the problems are reconciled, and what conclusions are drawn. The last speaker, Dr. Keith Slater (School of Engineering, University of Guelph), gave a talk on "Modern Aspects of Textile Degradation and the Associated Risks." This demonstrated the huge range of testing types that are available in the textile industry, and showed that wildly different results can be obtained from different testing regimes. Many of the tests seemed to be named after individuals, and it was sometimes a little difficult to visualize how a test was carried out. Although many of these tests are to evaluate harsh treatment in a relatively short time frame (in conservation terms), a knowledge of these methods could perhaps help to answer some of the questions as to what materials to use in conservation, and how to apply them.
In all, this was a useful day, and the contrast between industrial and conservation problems made it all the more interesting.
David Howell, Conservation Scientist Historic Royal Palaces Hampton Court Palace Surrey KT8 9AU E-Mail: davidathcp@intonet.co.uk Tel: +44-(0)181 781 9812/9814 (Direct Line) Fax: +44-(0)181 781 9813
