A new evaluation method for paper deterioration tentatively called the ‘rolling test' is described. The paper to be tested is rolled using cylinders of different diameters, and paper which can be safely rolled on cylinders of smaller diameters is considered more “flexible”. The rolling test was shown to have a good correlation with artificial ageing. Correlation between conventional mechanical measurements and the rolling test was studied on paper samples of varying levels of degradation. While the formers are suited to the characterization of papers which are not much deteriorated, the rolling test revealed to be a more effective measurement method for artificially aged and weakened papers. The rolling test performed on a limited number of pages from the Kyocera Collection of British Parliamentary Papers (Kyoto University Library) showed that samples from the second half of the 1800s are comparatively less “flexible” than samples from the other periods. The analysis of the fibre composition suggested that the use of groundwood pulp was a potential cause of the deterioration seen in the papers of this period.
/lp/de-gruyter/a-new-evaluation-method-for-paper-deterioration-the-rolling-test-rQPEmyNwDV