In recent years public spending cuts by councils in England have led to closure of public libraries, especially in small communities, or in some cases, their survival if enough volunteers can be found to manage and operate (and fund raise) to keep them going. I was looking back at the history of libraries and found this rather drastic approach to sanitising the printed word in an article carried by several British newspapers in 1897.
That disease is often conveyed by means of books in a public lending library seems beyond doubt. For some time Dr. John S. Billings, director of the New York Library, has been experimenting in order to discover a perfect disinfectant. Last year Mr. Horton, under Dr. Billings’s direction, conducted a series of experiments in the latter’s laboratory in Philadelphia. A number of old Patent Office reports were inoculated with a choice assortment of bacteria, and in a short time the books were full of germs of measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, and other diseases. Trials were then made of various germ-destroying substances, and as result of the experiments Dr. Billings says that he has a perfect disinfectant in the gas formaldehyde. The volume is placed in a glass or metal box, with a saucerful of a solution of formalin in water and left for an hour two. At the end of that time the vapour has penetrated into every particle of the book, and not a live germ can found. It is stated that formalin will also destroy the Croton bug. responsible for the ruin of so many fine buildings. The traditional bookworm is now a rarity in America, but the Croton bug has taken its place. (Croton = cockcroach)
5 April= publication date for THE GIRL BACK HOME in e and print formats. You still have until 14 April to enter the free Goodreads Giveaway of the print version.
That disease is often conveyed by means of books in a public lending library seems beyond doubt. For some time Dr. John S. Billings, director of the New York Library, has been experimenting in order to discover a perfect disinfectant. Last year Mr. Horton, under Dr. Billings’s direction, conducted a series of experiments in the latter’s laboratory in Philadelphia. A number of old Patent Office reports were inoculated with a choice assortment of bacteria, and in a short time the books were full of germs of measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, and other diseases. Trials were then made of various germ-destroying substances, and as result of the experiments Dr. Billings says that he has a perfect disinfectant in the gas formaldehyde. The volume is placed in a glass or metal box, with a saucerful of a solution of formalin in water and left for an hour two. At the end of that time the vapour has penetrated into every particle of the book, and not a live germ can found. It is stated that formalin will also destroy the Croton bug. responsible for the ruin of so many fine buildings. The traditional bookworm is now a rarity in America, but the Croton bug has taken its place. (Croton = cockcroach)
5 April= publication date for THE GIRL BACK HOME in e and print formats. You still have until 14 April to enter the free Goodreads Giveaway of the print version.
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