FRANK P. HILL, Chairman,
HORACE G. WADLIN,
CEDRIC CHIVERS.
The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: Inasmuch as the report of the committee contains a recommendation, that recommendation is now before you for action. Unless there are objections, the report will be referred to the executive board for consideration of the recommendations contained therein.
Dr. HILL: Mr. President, I hope we may hear from Mr. Chivers for a moment if he is here.
The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: With characteristic thoroughness Mr. Chivers has proceeded with his experiments as outlined by Dr. Hill, and we shall be very glad to hear from him at this time as to what he has found out.
Mr. CHIVERS: The report you have heard deals pretty fully with the subject, and I think the association may be congratulated upon the fact that the publishers of the more or less national newspapers, who would be required to print quite a number of copies, are willing to do it, but that is not the whole of the problem. The difficulty of bad paper and newspaper files will be felt in the future rather with local newspapers, because only a few copies would be required for filing purposes, and the printer would find special printing too troublesome and expensive.
As you have heard, there is a substance called cellit, a solution of cellulose and spirit, into which the paper may be dipped, and thoroughly saturated. The spirit quickly evaporating leaves the paper quite tough. The result is a very satisfactory paper. It is, however, practically impossible to dip so large a surface as a newspaper into this solution. The fibre when wet is too weak to handle; also the spirit in the solution quickly evaporates, leaving a glutinous mass, impracticable to deal with. We understand that oxidation of the paper resulted from the action of light, air and deleterious atmosphere. If the newspaper for filing were not allowed to be used in the reading room but were set aside on the morning of publication, kept from the light and air, and a board or weight placed upon it, and if the volume were bound directly it was complete, very little mischief would happen. Again, if the edges of the volume were frayed out and this solution of cellit, which is comparatively cheap and quite practical to use in this way, should be painted upon the edges, you would have a newspaper file which would last for a great number of years. How many, I do not know, but the chemist who accompanied me to the British Museum, in conducting the examination of newspapers under the instructions of your committee, could see no reason why the paper should not last indefinitely. We discovered there—because in the British Museum there are more newspapers brought together than in any other place in the world—that newspapers which were left lying about before binding were in a very bad condition in the course of four or five years, while newspapers which had been bound some fifteen or twenty years, of the same kind of paper, were in thoroughly good condition, proving that if you could take care of the paper and not allow it to be exposed to the air there is no reason why even bad paper should not last a very long time. The rule should be made as I have suggested it. In the British Museum there had been no rule, but the exigencies of the binding shop had been consulted, and here and there a newspaper had been bound quickly, and it was all right; and if it had been left about, as some of them were, it was all wrong. That is my practical contribution to the discussion.
Dr. BOSTWICK: I would like to ask Dr. Hill if his committee investigated the newspaper report that it is now possible, or will be shortly possible, to obtain a thin, tough metallic sheet which can be printed upon. It was reported that that had been done.
Dr. HILL: Nothing of that nature came before the committee, Mr. Chairman, but I am sure that at the next conference some publisher or some commercial house will give us that desired information. I would say for the benefit of those who are interested in this subject, and a great many of us ought to be, that there are extra copies of the first report of the committee on the table for distribution.
Dr. BOSTWICK: I would like to ask Mr. Chivers if he proposes, in applying the cellit to the edges of the sheets, to apply it to the bound volume as a whole, and whether in that case the edges of the sheets would not stick together?