FTIR spectroscopy of biodegraded historical textiles

Fungal attack is a common and severe problem in the storage rooms of museums. Fungi can damage different materials; organic materials are especially sensitive. In this work two different FTIR spectroscopy methods (micro-spectroscopy with diamond anvil cell and ATR) were used to investigate structural changes on biodeteriorated and non-affected textile fibres obtained from different Slovene museums and sacred objects. Several structural changes were observed in spectra of biodeteriorated as well as of non-affected cellulosic fibres, whereas no changes were observed in proteinaceous fibres. In the scope of spectral analysis crystallinity index has also been calculated by comparing two different band ratios. The research showed that the crystallinity index, calculated from the band intensity ratio I₁₃₇₂/I₂₉₀₀ groups fibres into two groups; biodeteriorated fibres predominantly have lower crystallinity index.     

拉曼光谱和色差法在丝质文物色彩损伤评估中的比较

丝质文物是博物馆内的重要藏品之一,具有极高的文化、艺术、历史价值。作为一种性质不稳定的蛋白质有机构成材料,丝质文物极易受到光学辐射而发生泛黄等色彩损伤,尤其是在Light Emitting Diode(LED)得到广泛应用的博物馆光环境中。如何针对馆藏丝质文物色彩损伤进行科学评估是本研究要解决的主要问题。色差评估法是分析博物馆照明对文物色彩损伤的有效手段,但是存在相应的局限性,无法对色彩损伤的诱导期进行评估。由于文物发生色彩损伤的根本原因在于材料内部分子结构发生光化学反应,理论上说,从微观分子层面研究的拉曼光谱法能够更加科学地评估丝质文物色彩损伤。本研究将拉曼光谱引入博物馆照明领域,对比色差评估结果验证拉曼光谱色彩损伤评估的可行性和科学性。通过构成四基色LED的450, 510, 583和650 nm四种窄带光对丝质样品开展长周期照射实验,分别以CIE L*a*b*色差和拉曼光谱作为评估指标,计算得到基于两种评估方法的不同窄带光对丝质文物的色彩相对损伤系数,分别为450 nm∶510 nm∶583 nm∶650 nm=1.00∶0.63∶0.48∶0.32和450 nm∶510 nm∶583 nm∶650 nm=1.00∶0.69∶0.47∶0.27。结果一方面表明,两种方法得到的四种窄带光对丝质文物的色彩损伤趋势是一致的,即450 nm>510 nm>583 nm>650 nm,波长越短对丝质文物的色彩损伤程度越大,说明拉曼光谱是一种能够量化评估丝质文物色彩损伤的可行方法;另一方面表明,基于拉曼参数计算的色彩相对损伤系数的比例差异更大。丝质样品的老化过程中存在诱导期。色差法难以分析丝质样品诱导期的色彩变化,而拉曼光谱分析则可灵敏地检测出相应的分子结构变化,包括诱导期。因此,拉曼光谱法能够对丝质文物的色彩损伤进行更加科学地评估。同时,研究得到的构成LED光谱的四种窄带光对丝质文物色彩相对损伤系数,可以为这类光源在丝质文物照明中的损伤度评估和博物馆准入评估提供依据。     

The Physical Tourist

John Calvin (1509–1564) founded a College and Academy in Geneva in 1559, the latter of which, through the efforts of many of its scholars, was finally declared to be a genuine university, the University of Geneva, in 1872. Meanwhile, thanks to the outstanding achievements of the rich, patrician Genevan scientists, in particular during the 18th century, Geneva secured a prominent place in European learned society. With the appointment of Charles-Eugène Guye (1866–1942) to the University of Geneva in 1900, Genevan research entered resolutely into 20th-century physics, particularly relativity, and continued to gain momentum before and after the Second World War when, in 1953, Geneva was chosen as the site of one of the most prestigious scientific laboratories in the world, CERN. I sketch these developments, pointing out many of the locations where they occurred in Geneva. For an interactive map of Geneva, see the website <www.ville-ge.ch/en/cartes/>. Jan Lacki teaches history and philosophy of physics at the University of Geneva and is a member of the REHSEIS research unit of the CNRS, Paris.     

Characterisation of natural polysaccharides (plant gums) used as binding media for artistic and historic works by capillary zone electrophoresis

The monosaccharide constituents of plant gums were separated by capillary electrophoresis at pH 12.1 and detected with indirect UV absorbance. The plant gums investigated were gum arabic, gum acacia, gum tragacanth, cherry gum and locust bean gum (carob gum). The monosaccharides obtained after hydrolysis with 2M trifluoroacetic acid and lyophilisation of the hydrolysate were arabinose, galactose, mannose, rhamnose, xylose, fucose, and glucose, and the two sugar acids galacturonic and glucuronic acid, in accordance with the literature. They were separated in a background electrolyte consisting of NaOH to adjust the pH, 20 mM 2,6-pyridinedicarboxylic acid as chromophore for detection and 0.5 mM cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as additive to reverse the electroosmotic flow. Based on their electropherograms, the plant gums could be identified by their typical composition (depicted in a decision scheme) as follows: a peak of glucuronic acid, together with that of rhamnose, is indicative for gum arabic. Peaks of galacturonic acid and fucose point to gum tragacanth. Locust bean gum shows a major peak for mannose (with the concomitant galactose peak in ratio 4-1), whereas a glucuronic acid and a mannose peak together with a prominent arabinose peak indicates cherry gum. The method was applied to identify the plant gums in samples like watercolours and in several paint layers like gum tempera or those with egg white or drying oils as additives. Artificial aging experiments of thin layers of gum arabic on paper or glass carried out with UV-A radiation (366 nm) did not result in changes of the saccharide patterns, in contrast to the simultaneously conducted aging of a drying oil layer.     

Animal glues in mixtures of natural binding media used in artistic and historic objects: identification by capillary zone electrophoresis

Animal glues were often used in historic and artistic objects, e.g. as paint ground, as binders for pigments, or as adhesives. The sources were egg, casein, or different collagens. For restoration and conservation purposes it is important to know which kind of animal glue a museum object contains. Capillary electrophoresis can deliver such information, because it enables differentiation among the three proteinaceous glue classes according to their different amino acid patterns after hydrolysis. This work deals with the most relevant problem in practice, whether this identification is obstructed by the presence of other binders, with which they are mixed in many real samples; in particular, interference from plant gums and drying oils was investigated. Capillary electrophoresis of the hydrolysates (after reaction with 6 mol L^–1 HCl) was performed with an acidic background electrolyte consisting of chloroacetic acid (51.9 mmol L^–1) adjusted with LiOH to pH 2.26. The underivatised analytes were detected with a contactless conductivity detector. It was found that the constituents of the plant gums (monosaccharides) or drying oils (long-chain fatty acids and short-chain dicarboxylic acids) never interfered with identification of the animal glues, as shown for artificial mixtures of the different binders even at tenfold excess over the animal glue, and for egg tempera samples. The method was used to identify the filling material from a statue from the eighteenth century.     

The Physical Tourist¶Physics in “Lake Wobegon”: A Tour of Three Minnesota Museums of Science and Technology

I provide a tour of three museums of science and technology in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota: the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting, and The Bakken Library and Museum.     

On-site determination of formaldehyde: a low cost measurement device for museum environments

A trapping reagent for formaldehyde, based on the pararosaniline reaction, was evaluated as a method of determination of formaldehyde in the aqueous or vapour phase. Collection of formaldehyde vapour relied upon passive diffusion of formaldehyde into the trapping media and quantitative results were obtained without the need for liquid impingers, bubblers or active sampling pumps. Moreover, a novel, hand-held absorption spectrophotometric measurement device was designed to provide on-site, quantitative measurements. It is proposed that the full measurement system devised would be ideally suited to specific sampling applications such as those found in museum enclosures.     

Novel secoeunicellins produced by an octocoral Cladiella sp

Two novel 6,7-secoeunicellins, cladieunicellins W (1) and X (2), along with a known eunicellin, klymollin Y (3), were isolated from an octocoral identified as Cladiella sp. The structures of secoeunicellins 1 and 2 were elucidated by spectroscopic methods. 1 is the first secoeunicellin possessing a γ-lactone ring and 2 represents the first secoeunicellin possessing two tetrahydrofuran moieties. Secoeunicellin 2 displayed significant inhibitory effects on the generation of superoxide anions and the release of elastase. These results implied that the methoxy group at C-6 in 2 plays an important role in determining the activity of these compounds.     

The Physical Tourist

I provide a tour of Madrid, focusing especially on physical institutions that were created during the 19th and 20th centuries.These include the Astronomical Observatory close to the Prado Museum, which itself was conceived as a home for the Royal Academy of Sciences but became instead a world-famous art museum in 1819, leaving the Royal Academy of Sciences without a permanent home until 1866.The Laboratory of Physical Researches was created in 1910, and under the direction of Blas Cabrera (1878–1945), who also held a professorship at the Universidad Central, it fostered most of the Spanish research in physics at the time, in particular the famous spectroscopic researches of Miguel A. Catalán (1894–1957). Nearby were the so-called Transatlantico building and the Students’ Residence where Albert Einstein (1879–1955), for example, lectured in 1923, and which together continue to serve as a major cultural center in Madrid. Later, the physical laboratory was replaced by the National Institute of Physics and Chemistry, which was constructed with funds from the Rockefeller Foundation and inaugurated in 1932. A new University City with its Faculty of Sciences also was constructed on the northwestern outskirts of Madrid, but almost all of its buildings were totally destroyed during the devastating Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. It was reconstructed after the war and became home, for example, to Spain’s first nuclear reactor, which achieved criticality in 1958.     

Einstein as Engineer:The Case of the Little Machine

I first discuss Albert Einstein’s practical and educational background in engineering and then his invention of his “little machine,” an electrostatic induction machine, while working in the Patent Office in Bern, Switzerland, between 1902 and 1909. He believed that it could be used as a voltage or potential multiplier in experiments to test his new theory of Brownian motion of 1905. I then discuss Einstein’s search for collaborators to produce it and the work that his friends Conrad and Paul Habicht, in particular, did in designing and testing it. Although the initial response to it was promising, it never became a success after Paul Habicht manufactured a few specimens of it beginning in 1912.Today only three specimens are known to exist; these are preserved at the Zürcher Hochschule Winterthur, Switzerland, in the Physics Institute of the University of Tübingen, Germany, and in the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden,The Netherlands.