September 1961 Vol XV No.9
Number 163
Page 1
September 1961 – No 163
_______________________________________________________________________________________ Annual General Meeting and Club Dinner. This year's Annual Dinner will be held at the Cliff Hotel at Cheddar on Saturday, 7th October at 7 for 7.30 pm. The Annual General Meeting is at 2 pm at the Redcliffe Church Hall, Guinea Street, Bristol. Tickets for the dinner are obtainable from Bob Bagshaw either in person or by writing to him at 699 Wells Rd, Knowle Bristol 4. The price of the tickets is, we understand, 12/6. Voting forms for the 1962 committee are included with this B.B. We apologise for their lateness, but remind members that they can be sent in any time up to the opening of the A.G.M. To enable late entries to be included, the closing date for the photographic competition has now been extended to the day of the A.G.M. However, the organiser would like to remind members that late entries will increase the difficulty of judging and exhibiting the entries, so members are asked not to leave it until the last moment unless it is absolutely necessary. The entries will be on view at the dinner and the prizes presented. There is still time to enter for the song competition. A few members are known to be struggling with a song apiece at the moment, so why not add to the ranks? Finally, the Caving Sec. has arranged a G.B. trip for the Sunday after the A.G.M. and dinner to round off the weekend. “Alfie” _______________________________________________________________________________________ A full list of names of Cuthbert’s Leaders is now on view at the Belfry. The list will also be published in next month's B.B. and at intervals afterwards to keep it up to date. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ARALDITE & ARCHAEOLOGY It is a known fact that certain members of the B,E.C. have long sworn by Araldite as an A.1. adhesive, it apparently surpassing even the traditional organic adhesive used on blankets etc. Now, according to CIBA Ltd. (Tech. Service Dept notes No 218) Araldite in one form or another, is proving invaluable to the archaeologist as a medium for preserving and for restoration work in museums. One of the early examples was the case of the Dead Sea Scrolls where highly corroded copper sheets were reinforced with a coating of Araldite before being dissected for study. Epoxy resins in general have excellent adhesion to many of the different materials met with in archaeological work and are also extremely durable and resistant to many other chemicals. More important than this, however, is the fact that not only can these resins be persuaded to penetrate an object, but on drying the shrinkage is negligible, ensuring little risk of distortion in the preserved object. Of the cases quoted by CIBA, the most interesting is that of a wooden boat 14 feet long, found in mud which had formed the bottom of a lake drained one hundred years ago. Dated by C14 to the 14th Century, the boat had a unique construction, being basically a dug out canoe with clinker built sides and it was decided to preserve it in the National Maritime Museum. As it dried out slowly over twelve months, the wood became fragile and to consolidate the surface, a type of araldite was brushed on. Copies of the paper describing this and other work may be obtained from CIBA Ltd. Duxford, Cambridge. K.S. Gardner.