4 ms·
Poison Book Project
- kylecazar 4y agoI once took a course called "poisonous books", a survey of literature throughout history considered "dangerous" due to the ideas presented. This is far more literal!!
- userbinator 4y agoNo doubt considered quite useful at the time for its naturally insecticidal properties... Librarians might be exposed more, and the information on the page has a hint of MSDS-like paranoia, but I wonder how toxic it is in practice to the individual who may have a few of these on a shelf somewhere.
- davidw 4y ago"Klaatu Barada Nikto"
- vogt 4y agoThis piqued my curiosity and is something well outside of my normal hobbies/interests (conservation of old books or antiques, physical library spaces in general, etc), so I was curious who started it. Turns out the answer is Dr Melissa Tedone - Lab Head for Books & Library Materials Conservation at Winterthur Museum. She had been reading a book about arsenic-containing wallpapers in Victorian-era England, and connected mental dots while examining a book entered into the museum with a microscope. Pretty fascinating stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jH1niN3NpU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jH1niN3NpU the backstory starts around the ~1:40 mark