Come behind-the-scenes for a day of hands-on activities for the kids, special talks and tours at the Powerhouse Discovery Centre: Collection Stores at Castle Hill on Saturday 9 February 2008 (10.00am – 4.00pm). Gain an insight into how we care for the collection and ask Powerhouse Museum conservators for professional advice on how to care for your collections and personal treasures.
View the full Open Day program.
We have a student, Jennifer Brian, in the lab who has been studying our early flute collection for a number of months. She has been studying the single keyed wooden flutes, such as the Potter, the 4 keyed ‘D’Allemagne and Co.’ and the 8 keyed ‘Rudall & Rose’ flute. Most of these flutes are on display in the museum. The reason for this research is to gain a better understanding of the flutes themselves, the effects of age on their structure and materials (such as cracking, warping and shrinkage), the workmanship in their making and how the instruments have evolved over time with regard to bore structure, tone hole placement and size, decoration, tuning slide structure, key mounting etc. Jennifer has carefully analysed each instrument, producing measured drawings which highlight the structural components of each instrument. One example gleaned from this analysis is the presence of severe cracking of the wood in each flute with a metal lined head-joint. This indicates the potential for the metal lining to be a contributing factor to long term damage as the wood changes.
Object 93/117/5
This research will be valuable for our musical instruments conservator and curator.
Tim Morris, conservator metal and small technology, is currently working on a model that demonstrates a principle of physics. It was conserved in 1986 using products that would be used if it was to be operated on a regular basis. These products were designed for optimum operation of the object, not necessarily for the longevity of the object. This approach was best practise at the time.
Object 86/612
Conservation trends have changed since then. We do have operational objects at the Powerhouse Museum such as steam engines and musical instruments. However, most that were once operational have been ‘mothballed’ so they do not sustain further damage.
The products used in the early treatment of this item were not inert. The grease has acted as an electrolyte and has caused the brass to dezinc, observed as the green colour on the object in the photo.
Tim dismantled the object and took samples of the grease and tested it for chlorides. Fortunately the tests were negative. A positive result for chlorides would have indicated the grease had chemically bonded to the metal and would require vigorous treatment. However in this case, the remaining grease was then removed with solvents, detailed photos were taken of the corrosion, and the corrosion was reduced mechanically.
The object was reassembled and lubricated using a medical (archival) grade petroleum jelly. This will protect the moving parts but will not harm the metal. The object can occasionally be used for demonstration.
During the period 1929-55, the museum director Arthur de Raymond Penfold became fascinated by a new material called plastic and stated:
‘The way they stirred the imagination of the public is as much a marvel as the wizardry of the modern organic chemist who gave us the great invention.’
Object H4146-16
The Powerhouse Museum has a wonderful plastic collection which also includes some of the raw materials for plastic fabrication. We have started a preservation research project this year to analyse and identify the types of plastics collected during this period. We plan to identify the composition of each object.
Our analysis is being carried out using a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR). When infrared radiation interacts with matter it can be absorbed, causing the chemical bonds in the matter to vibrate. Chemical structural fragments within molecules are known as functional groups. Each functional group absorbs infrared radiation in the same wave-number range regardless of the structure of the rest of the molecule. For instance, the C=O stretch of a carbonyl group occurs at ~ 1700cm-1 in ketones, aldehydes and carboxylic acids.
This means there is a correlation between the wave-numbers at which the molecule absorbs infrared radiation and its structure. This correlation allows the structure of an unknown material to be identified by comparison of the infrared spectrum of that material to spectral libraries of known materials.
The identification of each object’s composition will help us to determine the conservation needs for each item. We will be considering factors affecting deterioration rates, storage and exhibition requirements. This analysis will increase and verify the information held in the museum’s object collection records.
We recently acquired the famous Generco Bi-plane, the only plane to have flown under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It did this prior to the opening in 1932. The bi-plane has been stored at Wiseman’s Ferry in a hangar. The plane couldn’t be flown onto our storage site so it had to be transported by trailer and truck. The wings of the plane had to be dissembled in the hangar and were placed in our truck. The fuselage was then attached to the trailer and moved to our storage area at the Powerhouse Discovery Centre, (PDC) Castle Hill. Once new brackets are made, the bi-plane can then be stored with its wings folded back.
Object 2007/143/1
The PDC opened earlier this year and 7 ultra-light planes were hung from the ceiling in the display store. Planes are large objects that take up a lot of space, so hanging them from the roof makes a lot of sense. It saves a lot of valuable space and it allows you to see the planes from different angles. There are arguments in the museum community about strain being placed on components of the aircraft when they are suspended. One alternative is to display planes on stands. However, the stands don’t support the wings and the plane still takes up a lot of room in our store. Another alternative is to display the fuselage separately to the wings. We took these points into consideration before deciding to suspend the ultra-lights.
The roof of the display store was built and certified to support the weight of the 7 ultra-light planes. With a new device called a rig-mate girder clamp, the planes could then be suspended from single hanging points anywhere in the ceiling. Six planes were hung in the display store and one was hung upside down in the foyer of the PDC.
The planes were hung with wire cables (to current Australian standards). Specifically designed brackets were made and clamped around structurally strong parts of the plane. The wire cables could then be attached to the brackets. This meant that no holes were drilled into the objects. The planes were then put in place using a block and tackle system.
The twin plank glider only needed one cable. This meant that the wings could be placed at interesting angles using cable attached to the rig-mate girder clamp.
The plane in the foyer is suspended upside down. This presented a different challenge as it was too difficult to turn a plane over once it was assembled. To prepare for hanging the fuselage was turned upside down and the wings and wheels were attached in the upside down position.
Storing collections can take a lot of work. We have recently started on a storage project that will take at least a year to finish. It’s a project that has come from the gay community and it involves the acquisition of 109 quilts forming part of the Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt Project. The PHM decided to acquire the collection because of its significance in the community as a memorial to those who lost their lives to AIDS. The quilts are part of the public health and medicine focus within the Powerhouse collection. The AIDS Quilt Foundation no longer had the space or resources to store the quilts. As a result a collaborative project has commenced between us and the gay community. Some community members have kindly volunteered to assist with the cataloguing of the quilts and preparing them for storage in partnership with some volunteers from the Powerhouse Discovery Centre.
Each quilt is 3.5 m² and contains 4-10 panels. These panels were made by family and friends of people who died of AIDS from 1982 until 2003, when the project finished. This photo shows the volunteers learning our complex procedure of cataloguing each panel. After cataloguing, the volunteers will attach a Velcro hanging system to each quilt, then fold each quilt for storage. A support tray made by the volunteers of corflute, aluminium tube and queblocks joints will be used to store each quilt. We need 540 pool noodles (wrapped in cloth) to pad out the folds for the quilts. The quilts will soon be housed in our store, and be available for loan to the community.