Interesting and somewhat gruesome story about how priceless books are kept intact in libraries. The end is suitably dramatic but the full essay is worth a read:
On January 1, 1933, a photo of the librarian landed on the pages of the New York Times. There is no article accompanying the photo, only a short caption that credits Iiams with devising a “Gas Chamber in Which All Volumes Are Submitted Periodically to a De-Worming Process.” The headline lethal gas chamber for bookworms runs above the image of Iiams standing before a fumigation tank, a book held open in one hand as he examines it through a magnifying glass held in the other, a nearby truck of priceless books already loaded in the tank, their spines sparkling faintly as they await sterilization.
The oldest thing we have in my family is the handwritten family expenses maintained by my great-grandmother in the 1800s. The paper is brown and falling apart. The penmanship is absolutely beautiful. She writes with pen and quill and those few lists we have are a like a precious work of art. My mother has then laminated and my parents take great pride showing them to friends and family. I am glad we were able to save something so valuable for our family without needing the fumigation.
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