Nowe laboratorium British Museum i jego funkcjonowanie praktyczne

This paper describes the origin and development, the engineering services and the furnishings, of a new laboratory building. The laboratory serves three principal functions in connexion with the antiquities collection a t the British Museum, namely, professional contacts; scientific examination of antiquities; re search into new methods of conservation, and conservation and restoration of antiquities which cannot, be dealt with by routine methods. Various features are considered in detail. These are methods of h e a ting and ventilation, precautions against entry of dust, fume extraction from the laboratories, maintainance of a low level of relative humidity in the conservation laboratory, sources of light and power, and distribution of distilled water. P articu lar mention is made of the flexibility of arrangements in the conservation laboratory. Finally the practical functioning of the laboratory is described in connexion with the examination and trea tm en t of a mineralized metallic antiquity, with references to documentation and to some of the equipment brought into use for this purpose.