Save Our Heritage Organisation
Reflections Quarterly Newsletter
2005 Volume 36, Issue 4
Conservator's Corner
By Sharon Gehl
What do you do with wonderful old books and magazines, when their musty smell makes you want to throw them away? Faced with that problem last year, I searched the web without success, and then started phoning libraries. Finally a preservationist at the Huntington Library recommended "ONE DROP", a household deodorizer. It comes in a little green bottle and can be found in some groceries stores; the Vons in Mission Hills carries it.
Put a drop or two on a cotton ball, put a few balls in a cardboard box or plastic bag filled with whatever you are trying to deodorize, and close it up. It takes a day or two to work. If there isn't enough of a change the first time, repeat the process. Putting cotton balls behind books on a shelf or in a drawer seems to also work. The effect is permanent, or else I've gotten used to the smell of musty old books!
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