Author: Jeff Peachey

Book conservator, tool maker, book historian.
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Free X-Ray Magnification Fluoroscopy Offer

Last week I attended the Atlantic Design and Manufacturing Show at the Javits Center in NYC.  There are similar shows around the country, and if you are interested in cutting edge technology that may have possible applications to conservation, they are well worth attending.

I noticed a couple of interesting items; super-fast absorbent sponges designed for Ophthalmic applications, sub $200 ( 10-70x) USB microscopes, and a very cool, open source 3d printer for less than $1000.  Three dimensional printers can print virtually anything, in this case up to  100 x 100 x 100mm out of ABS, HDPE or PLA plastic.

But perhaps the most useful offer came from Gil Zweig, President of Glenbrook Technologies Inc. He has invented a patented, real time, MXRA x-ray machine with magnification up to 20x.  If you have a bit of money left over in your budget, he sells a desktop machine for about $39,000.  Or you can rent lab time for $250/ hr in his Randolph NJ location.  He is primarily marketing his services for medical, industrial and forensic applications, but seemed interested in expanding his market to conservators, and offered a free hour on the machine if you have an artifact than needs x-rayed.

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The Ascent And Descent Of Man

ascent-of-man-2

The above photo is from Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 124, No. 6, June 1934, p. 35.  This is an early depiction of the ascent of man, and it is taken from the Peabody Museum of Natural History, at Yale University.  It was featured in a section of the magazine that reports on new Science news, so it must have been fairly recently installed.  The succession is gibbon, orangutan, chimpanzee, gorilla and human.

Recently, I saw the sign below on 23rd. St., NYC, and it was an ad for some online food ordering company.   I thought it was clever in depicting technological tool use, and how we become dependent on the increasing size of our tools, thus returning us to our protohuman stature?

descent of man

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The Thread That Binds: A Book Review

I recently reviewed “The Thread that Binds: Interviews with Private Practice Bookbinders” by Pamela Train Leutz in The Bonefolder, Volume 6, No. 2, Spring 2010.  Here is the beginning of the review:

“In a field as small as bookbinding, a book reviewer occupies a precarious position, since they often have personal knowledge of, if not direct relations with, the author. At the very least, the reviewer and author are usually connected by a friend, or friend of a friend. So reviewing a book that includes interviews with 21 of leading bookbinders currently working in the field places this author in a position beyond precarious – an ideal chance to anger friends, alienate acquaintances and antagonize colleagues. The book even featured a long, highly complementary blurb from the publisher of this journal, Peter Verheyen on the back cover.

Foregrounded by these preoccupations, my hands trembled as I unwrapped my review copy…”

Read the entire review here.