Pacific Silvercloth
Special Sorbents for the Protection of Silver against tarnishing. Tarnishing of silver is mainly caused by hydrogen sulphide and – to a minor degree – other pollutants like sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides and chlorine. Relative humidity is an important factor in these reaction processes.
Many current methods of protecting silver from tarnishing (laquering, coatings or
vapour phase inhibitors) have shown serious negative side-effects. Removing the
gaseous contaminants from the air is therefore a convincing and safe way of
protecting precious silver objects (including photographic material, other metals and
metallic based paints) which leaves the objects untouched and unchanged.
General pollutant scavengers like Purafil or activated carbon slow down tarnishing of
silver objects considerably, too. Comparative tests however showed that special zincoxide
based sorbents or Pacific Silvercloth provide by far superior protection.
Pacific Silvercloth is a 100% cotton fabric embedded with thousands of fine silver
particles. It is produced by precipitation of pure, colloidal silver on a cotton fabric.
This fabric absorbs tarnish producing gases before they reach the silver items. It is
96.5cm wide, napped and only comes in one colour which is brown (colour of the
colloidal silver on the fibres).
Pacific Silvercloth is twice as effective as fabrics that
are embedded with zinc or other metals. It can be effective for several decades
depending on the environment where the silver is stored. It can be placed directly on
silver or glued to drawers or cabinet walls.
Pacific Silvercloth does not emit any
chemicals (unlike fabrics containing vapour phase inhibitors) and has successfully
been used in many museums and silverware shops. It can be used for silver on
display and in storage cabinets.
For silverware stored in leaky cupboards or in
frequent use (like in churches) protective bags can be sewn using Pacific Silvercloth.
If drawers are to be lined with Pacific Silvercloth, an extra lap should cover the
drawer in order to surround and enclose the objects contained in the drawer
completely. Absorption of pollutants changes the colour of the fabric from brown to
black, so the colour gives a certain indication if the fabric is still effective.