Ordnance.

As a museum curator, you spend a lot of time thinking about how the various elements of the environment can do harm to the artifacts in the collection. You think about heat and humidity, mold and mildew, and numerous other threats to historic materials. In our case, we think a lot about how our 1850's row home facility and the people who visit it can potentially harm the objects. Researchers using books are hard on the old paper and weak spines, leather and metal can be harmed by the oils on the skin. You take the utmost precautions to prevent harm to the objects by keeping them in controlled environments, conserving and stabilizing items that are in urgent need of care, and saying over and over again, "please don't touch."

What you don't spend much time thinking about is how objects in the collection might harm you. And not just you, but harm the other staff, the visitors, and the public at large. For most museums, such as those covering art or science, the concern is largely chemical or particulate. For a museum like ours, the danger is more direct and immediate. Like unexploded ordnance, for example.

In our case, unexploded ordnance is anything from relic shell stuck in battle logs, shells dug out of the ground, unfired bullets, percussion caps, and artillery fuses. It is too easy to think of these things in their historical context, as an original hand made .58 caliber cartridge or a shell that lodged in a tree at the Battle of Gettysburg, and not as the weapon that it truly is. But as we prepare to move our collection, it became imperative that we determine without a doubt the safety of these items.

As a result, on July 8th, the museum was visited by a team of experts with a fascinating array of equipment and information in order to certify the safely of our ordnance. Using techniques both high and low tech, the team was able to provide us with crucial information about these unique artifacts. The most impressive piece of technology is pictured above. It is a mobile x-ray machine that the team used to get instant digital x-rays of artillery shells to reveal if there is any powder left in them. This is of particular value when examining battle logs, because there is often no other way to learn if they are inert.

High tech isn't the only way, however, and the team used methods as simple as probing the inside of the shell with a straightened wire hanger or simply weighing the item. The team brought a large binder full of data on Civil War shells, such as how much they weight when both full and empty. This information proved useful for one shell that turned out to be stubbornly resistant to x-rays. Simply placing it on a scale revealed that it was significantly less than the 24 lbs. it was supposed to weight. It was empty, and therefore safe.

So we gained a great deal of information about the ordnance in our collection. The serious part is that it is safe. We will be issued a "certificate of inertness" (I need one of those for Saturdays), and can proceed with moving these items with confidence. We also learn some fascinating things that were more fun. For example, the battle log above actually has a metal rod inserted through it that holds the shell in place (many years ago they must have worried that it would fall out). Another battle log that we thought had two cannon balls lodged in it turned out to only have two fragments in it. The tree had grown around them in such a way as to make the fragments appear to be solid rounds.

It was a fun and interest day at the museum. We learned a lot, and got to watch a team of highly trained and dedicated experts do their thing. We are very grateful to them, and appreciate their efforts to insure that our ordnance is safe. That is, as long as you don't drop it on your foot.