Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/170

144, to free it from rust. Taking an iron dagger which came from some excavations near Berlin, Professor Rathgen first removed as much of the rust as was possible in the ordinary way and then used a dentist's buzzer to obliterate all remain- ing traces. The result was a disagreeable, pock-marked, shiny, shapeless thing which had lost all character by the process. It was so unsatisfactory that no object has ever been exhibited on which the process was used, and the experimenters are trying to discover some means of preserving the "antique look" without risking deterioration. The usual method of securing this result is by painting the object as it comes out of the ground with paraffin or varnish. The theory of this is that rust grows by oxidation and that an object kept away from the air will not become worse. The effect is very ugly, and the object has almost as "false" an appearance as the too much cleaned specimen. There is an electrolytic method which bids fair to prove the solution of the whole problem. The surface rust is partially removed by this and the progress of the disease is at least temporarily arrested. Often iron objects recovered from excavation are in a condition where even their form is threatened because of the corroding action of the rust. In these cases, the varnish or paraffin method is the only satisfactory