Light Fading....
I am involved with the managment of the 1940 Air Terminal Museum in Houston and we had a huge problem with fading of aviation artifacts of all kinds.
Our soloution was to put a UV block film on the windows. The manufacturer guaranteed a 97% reduction in UV rays. After it was installed we did a test.
In all the display cases we cut small strips of constructon paper, about 1 inch long and 1/2 inch wide. One strip was bright red, the next strip was robin egg blue and the last strip was black. We then cut strips from the same paper and put them in a photographic pouch that was light proof and put the pouch inside a file cabinet in a very dard storeroom.
In 30 days we pulled the strips out and compared them to the strips that were in the cases. The findings?
The red strips had faded to pink.
The blue strips had faded to a light grey
The black strips were virtually unchanged.
What was strange was that some of the cases were in places that received indirect light. The fading there was lessened, but still it was blantantly obvious.
Our solution? Covering the windows completely. The manufacturer of the film said that with time and the strong Texas sun, even 3% UV rays can do this type of damage.
I should also say that the windows are very large, about 8 feet wide by about 16 feet tall.
www.wingsandwheels.org
