Paragould soliphone., 1921-08-17
NEW METHOD FOR KEEPING
 NEWS FILES
Problem of Preserving Inn portant Newspapers For Posterity has been Solved bv New York Men.

New York. Aug, l5.-The problem of preserving for posterity important
 newspaper files, which, since wood
 pulp superseded rags in the mahu-
 facture of newsprint, has balilea
 librarians all over the world, al
 last apparently has been solved by
 officials of the New York 5Pubhc
 Library.
 After seven years of experimental
 ton, backed by the cooperation or
 three New York daily papers, each
 of which has spent $5,000 year
 to find the best preservation meth-
 od, the officials believe they nave
 discovered the correct solution, that of mounting each newspaper sheet between two sheets of thin Japanese tissue.
 This shuts the original sheet from the air, reduces it's legibllity but sliehtlV. strengthens the page and permits it's free handling without danger of disintegration AS almost everyone knows, the newspapers of 50 years ago were printed on rag stock and were toush and durable. You see them ill the libraries almost in as good condl- ton as the day they were printed. Not so with the journals printed since the seventies and eighties of | the past century, according to Harry M. Lydenberg, chief reference li- brarian in the New York Public Library. Wood pulp paper becomes yellow and brittle after exposure, he said.
 Bound volumes treated by the new process have been in daily use
 at the library for some time and are free from the marks of wear and
 tear shown by less fortunate con-
 temporaries.
 The library has a regular depart
 ment for he treating of newspaper files of three New York dailies. With the aid of recently perfected
 mechanical equipment it prepares the papers at a cost Of about $35 Ito $40 bound volume, which is | paid for by the publishers in order that their papers may be preserved l in the library archives. The tissue paper used in the process is imported from Japan, where it is made by hand It is applied with rice paste and adds
 one-t -thousandth of an inch to an in
 diyidual sheet, making volume about one inch thicker than it would be ordinarily
 The paper problem is acute only 1 in the case of papers printed on
 ground pulp stock" continued MT 1 lLydenberg.
 Papers of the present peroid are certain Of complete disintegration
 within a short time. Paper makers sure for speed was not so great and
 more time could he taken to wash 1 the chlorine and other bleaching clements from the pulp. But makers I usually means a weakening of qual- 1 ity."
 i MT Lydenberg said that exten- sive experiments with chemical so- lutions put on new stock by spray
 or brush had failed because no chem ical treatment would patch up torn sheets nor fill in broken spots. The use of chiffon or thin light silk also failed to come up tn the tests made with the Japanese paper. Experiments are being continued at the library, Mir. Lydenberg said with the hope that some still better process of preservation may be found. He said experiments also were be- ing made with an American manu- factured tissue paper.
 'NVe may also use this method to preserve old books" he added, "as it will work out the same there
 as with the newspapers" The New York method, Mr. Ly- denberg said, is now used by Chicago newspaper.