Antarctic conservation blog

Early plastics

Nicola, Friday 23 October 2009

Most of the artefacts we’re working on at the Canterbury Museum are composed of metal, glass, wood or paper, but this week I’ve come across a couple of artefacts made from plastics. Although plastic is a common material today back at the beginning of the 20th century it was still fairly rare.

Recently brought back from the Ice for conservation are several rolls of cine-film from Cape Evans (associated with Captain Scott’s 1910 expedition). They were taken from the darkroom belonging to the expedition’s photographer Herbert Ponting.

Photographer and camera artist Herbert Ponting hanging off the side of the ship trying to get the perfect shot © Canterbury Museum

The rolls had been carefully wrapped in tin foil and black paper to protect them from being exposed to light, but as yet we don’t know if they had been used to take photographs or developed. This is very exciting as they could provide us with new, un-seen footage of the expeditions.

At that time, celluloid film was made of cellulose nitrate, a plastic produced by reacting cotton fibres with nitric and sulphuric acids. However, it’s very unstable and as the film ages it degrades, becoming sticky and producing acid which destroys any images. And once it starts it’s impossible to stop or conserve.

The film we have is in good condition at the moment so until it can be processed we’re preserving it by storing it in the dark, and in a freezer.

A Kodak cannister of 12 exposures which would have been used by Herbert Ponting nearly a century ago © Antarctic Heritage Trust

The other early plastic artefacts that I have on my bench are small black tubes of medicinal pills found beside Dr Edward Wilson’s bunk at Cape Evans. They include ‘Argyrol’ (a trade name of an antiseptic made of protein and silver) and caffeine used as a stimulant. Produced by Burroughs Wellcome & Co they may well have come from one of a series of medical kits presented to high profile expeditions and influential people as a way of advertising the company. Product placement even in the wilds of Antarctica!

Some of the Burroughs and Wellcome & Co medical vials from Captain Scott’s base at Cape Evans © Canterbury Museum

Posted in Antarctica, Conservation, Polar exploration, Scott

One Response to “Early plastics”

October 25th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Argusray says:

Hi:

I’ve enjoyed the blog for, how long have you folks been doing this? Anyway, it’s always fun and interesting to see/hear about the activities of the folks involved with the conservation and preservation of the historic huts.

However, isn’t it time to take the plunge and join the 2000’s? Why not try your hand at podcasting? Audio and video podcasts would be a natural for the stuff you’re doing. The techniques and technology to capture podcasts has become pretty user friendly. Give it a try.

Argus