John: I would most definitely NOT immerse your historical items in running water. What I WOULD consider, though, is increasing the humidity where they are stored. (A bit like resurrecting dry, crumbling pipe tobacco). Do you know what the relative humidity is in their storage area? If your house is like many people's houses, the RH often hovers around the 20% mark which will dry just about anything to dust in time. Try to get RH of items up around 65% ... but not all a once by giving them a shower! Then see how they respond to your touch. A pan of water on the floor of the closet, for example. Get an hygrometer so you know what the real numbers are and adjust accordingly. Scott Carlton ----- Original Message ----- From: John D Stone I need to get some historical items into Legacy notes. I perfer to scan these items and convert them to text. My problem... I've been digging in some old family items -- many have not been disturbed form 50 years. There are many old newspapers with family items, but they have been creased or folded and I'm afraid to try to straighten them out. I would like to copy and scan these originals, to share with others on the net and put copies in a notebook to share with my family. But first they have to be fairly straight. If I put them under the lid of a copier/scanner as dry as they are--they would crack, crumble and fall apart. Any iteas on how to straighten old newspapers and other items? I heard once that old newspapers could be rinsed with clean running water and then left to dry. H E L P! --John ------------------------------------------------------------------ John D. Stone [EMAIL PROTECTED] Las Vegas, Nevada To unsubscribe: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
