Oh no, Mr. Allen, *please* don't tell people to use bread!!!  Early in
conservation as a profession one would see the occasional reference to
bread as a dry cleaning agent, but bread has one glaring drawback:  it is
FOOD for pests.  Using bread on the surface of any object leaves yeast,
flour, sugar, and possibly oils in its wake, a really tasty treat for pet
bugs.  Never use bread (even Wonder Bread) - there are many other products
out there which are extremely effective and leave no chemical or
nutritional residues behind!


At 03:06 PM 8/25/97 -0500, you wrote:
>While working at the Bell Museum years ago I was informed by John
>Jaros, then the preparator at that institution, that one of the most
>effective ways of cleaning mounted specimens that had become dusty
>was with bread.  A loaf of sliced bread is cheap, already in usable sized
>pieces, will not blow arsenic dust or other harmful materials used in old
>mounts all over, and is easily obtained.
>
>Bread has just the right amount of moisture in it to be effective at picking
>up the dust on fur and feathers yet not enough so that the moisture from
>the bread causes a problem.   Simply buy yourself a loaf of Wonder
>Bread and proceed to wipe (gently) the dust and grime off of your
>mounts.  This is probably the best way to clean mounts and perhaps the
>best use ever found for Wonder Bread as well.
>
>
>

******************************
Karen E.K. Brown
Field Service Representative
Northeast Document Conservation Center
100 Brickstone Square
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Tel.(508) 470-1010
Fax (508) 475-6021
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