Recrystallizing naphthalene on natural history specimens

Erin Chapman <erchapman75 [at] yahoo__com__au> writes

>My minor thesis topic is the preparation, storage, and care of the
>Queensland Museum's Bat Collection. The bats in the Queensland
>Museum collection were collected to be used for research purposes,
>and as such, are not used for display within the museum. A large
>number of the bats exhibit a white crystalline powder on the outer
>surface of their skin, particularly around the legs and wings. The
>substance does not seem to be deleterious to the specimens.
>Preliminary examination and research into this problem indicates
>that the substance is more likely to be a re-crystallisation of
>naphthalene.

I have seen naphthalene recrystallized on textiles, it definitely
happens. Wet cleaning did not remove it, but I never had the
opportunity to look for a suitable solvent.

I apologize for the late posting on the wax question, but I was sure
someone would give this solution for wax removal from textiles--wax
is usually soluble in naphtha.  I've had good luck removing wax by
mechanically removing what I could and then getting the residue with
naphtha.

Deborah Bede
Stillwater Textile Conservation Studio, LLC
Bradford NH 03221


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:32
                 Distributed: Sunday, December 17, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-20-32-004
                                  ***