Device Of The Week (6)

Books are many things, but killers?

Well, in the 19th century a mixture of arsenic and copper was used to create a vivid emerald green colour which was used for colouring clothing, wallpaper, paint and, by book publishers, for book covers.

In these times of heightened health and safety consciousness, there are concerns that handling books with covers laced with arsenic on a regular basis can lead to irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat and the toxic pigment in the book bindings can flake off and be easily inhaled. Many libraries have taken the drastic step of removing old books with green covers from circulation because testing them has hitherto been expensive and time-consuming. Only last year the University of Bielefeld and other German universities removed 60,000 volumes as a precaution.

Now, though, thanks to some ingenious work done by some researchers at the University of St Andrews a hand-held device has been developed which detects the presence of the toxic pigment by shining different colours of light on to the book. The amount of light reflected at each colour is like a fingerprint of the book and the team have found a way to isolate the unique fingerprint of a toxic green book cover.

The process takes a matter of seconds and the team hope to roll the device to other libraries and academic institutions in an attempt to rescue some 19th century volumes from unwarranted exile.

For more details of this fascinating project and information about the free exhibition which runs until 31st July, follow this link.