Revisiting the Power Co-ordination Challenges of the Original Snowy Mountains Scheme

The Snowy Mountains Scheme (1949–1972) was an Australian hydro-electricity generation triumph. However, the power co-ordination challenges were significant before the invention of fibre optic cable, as this historic paper from June 1964 attests.

Seas No Longer Divide

A three-part historic paper by Alan Tulip in the Telecommunication Journal of Australia in 1988 describes the political campaign for the connection of Tasmania to the Australian mainland telecommunications network after World War I, not completed until 1936.

Non-destructive collection survey of the historical Classense Library. Part I: Paper characterisation

An innovative survey was conducted of the collections of the historical Biblioteca Classense, located in the urban area of Ravenna (Northern Italy). The survey aimed to evaluate the current conservation state of the book collections, where 297 paper-based items, including incunabulae, manuscripts and books, dating from the 14th to the 20th century, were selected for analysis. This innovative survey was carried out non-destructively by assessing degradation visually and by measuring NIR spectral data followed by multivariate data analysis. Chemical and physical paper properties, important for paper characterisation and implementation of conservation strategies were determined, including paper type, pH, degree of polymerisation (DP), tensile strength, lignin, protein, and rosin content. This survey provided a significant quantitative dataset for rag paper covering a 600-year period. The analysis of DP changes over time allowed the first experimental estimation of the rate constant for historical rag paper, i.e., (4.2±0.6)·10-7 year-1, which was validated with predictions based on the Collections Demography dose response function for historic paper taking into account the past climate in Ravenna. Statistical methods were employed to describe the correlations between the measured variables and different features of the books, suggesting that the degree of polymerisation can be used as a general proxy for rag paper mechanical strength.

Army Communications Looking Ahead

A historic paper from 1983 which describes the need for communications for command and control of the Army.

Non-destructive collection survey of the historical Classense Library. Part II: Conservation scenarios

To enable the development of conservation strategies for valuable historical collections, an innovative non-destructive and non-invasive survey was conducted at an historical library (Classense Library, Ravenna, Italy) to assess how management scenarios may influence the future conservation state of the collections. For the first time, the results in terms of acidity and degree of polymerisation of book collections were elaborated using the Collection Demography dose-response function modelled for historic paper to predict the lifetimes of the collections in different environmental scenarios. Isochrone plots and demographic curves were elaborated to evaluate the fitness-for-use as a function of environmental and book conditions. The results show that the most sensitive items are books with iron gall ink and acidic (post-1850) books. These books are not predicted to survive a long-term planning horizon of 500 years in their current storage environments. The present results provide the decision-makers with two options for preserving the fitness-for-use of the collections: a preventive conservation with significant cooling of the storage environments, or an interventive conservation involving treatments such as deacidification.

Non-destructive collection survey of the historical Classense Library. Part I: Paper characterisation

An innovative survey was conducted of the collections of the historical Biblioteca Classense, located in the urban area of Ravenna (Northern Italy). The survey aimed to evaluate the current conservation state of the book collections, where 297 paper-based items, including incunabulae, manuscripts and books, dating from the 14th to the 20th century, were selected for analysis. This innovative survey was carried out non-destructively by assessing degradation visually and by measuring NIR spectral data followed by multivariate data analysis. Chemical and physical paper properties, important for paper characterisation and implementation of conservation strategies were determined, including paper type, pH, degree of polymerisation, tensile strength, lignin, protein, and rosin content. This survey provided a significant quantitative dataset for rag paper covering a 600-year period. The analysis of DP changes over time allowed the first experimental estimation of the rate constant for historical rag paper, i.e., (4.2 ± 0.6)·10−7 year−1, which was validated with predictions based on the Collections Demography dose response function for historic paper taking into account the past climate in Ravenna. Statistical methods were employed to describe the correlations between the measured variables and different features of the books, suggesting that the degree of polymerisation can be used as a general proxy for rag paper mechanical strength.

The Telephony Engineering History of Western Australia from 1887 to 1987

A historic paper from 1991 which details the development of the public telephone system of Western Australia between 1887 and 1987.

Expansion of the cassava brown streak pandemic in Uganda revealed by annual field survey data for 2004 to 2017

Cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) is currently the most devastating cassava disease in eastern, central and southern Africa affecting a staple crop for over 700 million people on the continent. A major outbreak of CBSD in 2004 near Kampala rapidly spread across Uganda. In the following years, similar CBSD outbreaks were noted in countries across eastern and central Africa, and now the disease poses a threat to West Africa including Nigeria - the biggest cassava producer in the world. A comprehensive dataset with 7,627 locations, annually and consistently sampled between 2004 and 2017 was collated from historic paper and electronic records stored in Uganda. The survey comprises multiple variables including data for incidence and symptom severity of CBSD and abundance of the whitefly vector (Bemisia tabaci). This dataset provides a unique basis to characterize the epidemiology and dynamics of CBSD spread in order to inform disease surveillance and management. We also describe methods used to integrate and verify extensive field records for surveys typical of emerging epidemics in subsistence crops.

MACIEJ SZYMCZYK, RAINER SACHS, RAFAŁ EYSYMONTT, JAN BAŁCHAN, MONOGRAPH ON THE PAPER MILL IN DUSZNIKI-ZDRÓJ, DUSZNIKI-ZDRÓJ 2018, PP. 407

The historic paper mill in Duszniki-Zdrój (Lower Silesia Voivodeship) was granted Poland’s Historic Monument status in 2011, which confirms the complex’s historic and artistic worth. Currently, attempts are made to make it enter the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage List, actually together with the Czech Velke Losiny paper mill and the German one in Homburg. It should also be borne in mind that in 2018 Poland’s only Museum of Papermaking located on its premises celebrated 50 years of its existence. The Museum’s employees, headed by Maciej Szymczyk PhD, have recently been extremely successful as far as organization, investments, displays, and publications are concerned. As for the latter, preparations for an extensive Monograph on the Paper Mill in Duszniki-Zdrój have to be pointed to; the book is an academic attempt at presenting the facility’s complex history, beginning from the 16th century, as well the individuals related to it; furthermore, efforts to preserve the precious facility and its adaptation to serve museum purposes are described. The presented publication can be viewed as a successful crowning of the todate research, providing solid grounds for the documentation to support the UNESCO List entry application. The strongly factual and richly illustrated monograph should be analyzed on various levels, one of them speaking of the effect of the coherent and consistent activities of museologists.