Paper, leather, and wood

Nobody would have believed it was possible to recover paper from the bottom of the ocean after more than 80 years. Most of the materials were protected from decomposition because they were kept in leather bags; it is possible to make some of them legible once again thanks to recently developed preservation techniques.

Conservators have begun to apply electric currents to paper, leather, and wood in order to eliminate salt. They also treat these materials with chemical agents and fungicides to remove rust stains and fungi.

Objects made of wood and leather are then dried and impregnated with polyethylene glycol – a sort of water-soluble wax – to fill the capillarities of the object, previously filled with water. Paper is dried by cryonics and treated to prevent the growth of moulds.