September 2000 - Nr. 9
High-Tech Hope for Preserving the Past
TWIG - Scientists in Berlin think they have come up with a way to help librarians and archivists clean house. Institutions around the world hold about ten million medieval European documents that, experts say, could do with a good scrubbing to remove centuries’ worth of dust, mildew and general grime. Cleaning such documents, however, poses a considerable technical challenge, given their great age and frequently delicate condition. Germany’s Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing might have just the answer to the problem: a good healthy blast with a laser beam.
"Laser light is, in a manner of speaking, an eraser that works
without rubbing," according to institute member Wolfgang Kautek.
Because materials respond to light differently, he explained to the German
Press Agency (dpa), light rays can be used to distinguish between the ink
used in writing documents and particles of dust or grease or mildew that
have accumulated over time. The institute is now working with several major
European libraries to develop a laser cleaning system for documents and
artworks. Recent tests of prototype were highly encouraging, Kautek reported
in early June, and the institute hopes to bring it onto the market in three
years’ time.
