Calcium carbonate

[scratchie]

I just found this in an Ebay auction description:

I treated all my comics with calcium carbonate gas in the 70's and it slowed the aging way down.You can handle my books and don't worry about them falling apart.

Calcium carbonate is an antacid, but Wikipedia doesn't mention anything about it being used in the preservation of paper products. Anyone ever heard of this before?

[Roquefort Raider]

Nope, and since calcium carbonate isn't a gas I don't see how it would be applied to the pages... rubbing the powder on?

I read about people who used ammonia, though. They left their comics in a closed styrofoam box with an open conatiner of ammonia, which was supposed to neutralize the acid in the paper. (No idea what the comics smelled like afterwards, though).

[InfoBroker]

I did a quick google and came up with this interesting study (http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/abbey/an/an15/an15-8/an15-802.html). Talk about a comical book that is HOT!

There are methods used to balance and preserve all types of paper products. This FAQ (http://www.ptlp.com/faq.html)is one of the better ones I found.

While nasty newsprint needs all the help it can get, the standard dictate of most archivists tends to hold true, more damage has been done [by amatuers] to material in the act of trying to restore or preserve than just leaving it alone.

-jb the (is reminded of his cousin's scott tape encased copy of X-men #17) ib -

[MichikoS]

Nowadays, for most archival environments, alkaline buffering has been superseded by "active barrier materials," aka MicroChamber interleaving paper. MicroChamber interleaving paper is today the preferred choice for preservationists.

If I recall correctly, the calcium carbonate treatment scratchie came upon was a very expensive process in vogue for a short time in the 1970s among high-end comic collectors. The aim was to neutralize the acidity in the paper stock used to print comics. The main drawbacks to this kind of treatment were (1) a strong residual odor and (2) failure to prevent ink fading and yellowing, which are caused primarily by oxidation, environmental contaminants (nitrogen oxides, ozone, sulfur dioxide), and photoreactivity (sunshine, UV light).

MicroChamber paper appears to arrest or even reverse the effects of environmental pollutants on ink and paper. For what it's worth, for true archival comic storage, I recommend enclosing comics in a sealed mylar or polypropylene bag with at least one sheet of MicroChamber interleaving paper in contact with the book -- inserted into the front cover, centerfold, or back cover, for example. Always store your comics in a dark place, such as in a box with a lid. Temperature and humidity controlled environments are best.

MicroChamber interleaving paper can be purchased from various archival or conservation resources sites on the web, but it ain't cheap. Depending on how much of a condition freak you are, it might be worth investing in some MicroChamber interleaving paper for your very high grade comics.

Librarian Michi