Further adventures with Chemists
Oct. 25th, 2012 08:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baronessekatThis morning I asked a seemingly innocent question of my Director/VP: What is Rama Spectroscopy?
See I knew we did Infra-red spectroscopy but this was a new term for me (as is much of what we do in my department). I got a 10 minute explaination of it then he stopped, blinked and asked "Why do you ask". I mention that there has been discussion on the known world scribes list about an article that was published in 2009 in a journal about how someone did micro-Raman spectroscopy on the Book of Kells (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jrs.2231/pdf)
His eyes lit up and said that sounded like a really cool article to read. I have forwarded it to him and the Sr. Chemist who does infra-red spectroscopy.
I mentioned that now that I have the resources, I would love to be able to do a "color equivalent" research paper for the SCA. Ex. They used Orpiment (yellow lead), which has a certain level of toxicity. But a color analysis of it shows that modern pigment X is within a certain degree/percentage/unit of measure of the original color and provides a less-toxic and easier to obtain alternative. The Sr. Chemist said that if I can get samples of the colors that I want to try to find alternatives for they can do the infra-red spectroscopic analysis for me and help me figure out alternatives.
I was surprised and commented that I don't want to waste company resources and the response was "hey, maybe we can find a new branch to expand into or be able to provide a new line for our customers 'historical colors'. You never know."
See I knew we did Infra-red spectroscopy but this was a new term for me (as is much of what we do in my department). I got a 10 minute explaination of it then he stopped, blinked and asked "Why do you ask". I mention that there has been discussion on the known world scribes list about an article that was published in 2009 in a journal about how someone did micro-Raman spectroscopy on the Book of Kells (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jrs.2231/pdf)
His eyes lit up and said that sounded like a really cool article to read. I have forwarded it to him and the Sr. Chemist who does infra-red spectroscopy.
I mentioned that now that I have the resources, I would love to be able to do a "color equivalent" research paper for the SCA. Ex. They used Orpiment (yellow lead), which has a certain level of toxicity. But a color analysis of it shows that modern pigment X is within a certain degree/percentage/unit of measure of the original color and provides a less-toxic and easier to obtain alternative. The Sr. Chemist said that if I can get samples of the colors that I want to try to find alternatives for they can do the infra-red spectroscopic analysis for me and help me figure out alternatives.
I was surprised and commented that I don't want to waste company resources and the response was "hey, maybe we can find a new branch to expand into or be able to provide a new line for our customers 'historical colors'. You never know."
