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For DHMD director Iris Edenheiser, this was “valuable pioneering work” for handling three-dimensional objects made of cellulose acetate. The results could also be used by other institutions. 16 glass figures were examined, also owned by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, in universities and colleges in Slovakia, Finland and Germany. The condition of three other figures, including those in the Palais de la Découverte in Paris, was also recorded using questionnaires.
Aging of the plastic is simulated
Between 1930 and 1999 more than 130 glass figures were made in-house. About 40 people and animals are known with their current location. In the case of another 40 or so, at least clues to the whereabouts could be researched. “Acetic acid in the condensate of the plastic attacks metal parts – the aluminum skeleton and the wires – and dissolves the paint layer on the bones,” says Christoph Herm from the Dresden University of Fine Arts, describing possible damage. A badly battered Transparent Man from 1935, which caused a sensation at the Paris World Exhibition in 1937, and the Transparent Cow from 1982/83 in the DHMD have already been conserved.
In the interdisciplinary research project started in 2016 and funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, the aging of the plastic was simulated and the optimal climatic conditions were defined. With the right climate, decay is significantly slowed down, says restorer Jakob Fuchs. “The colder, the better, every degree can mean years more.” Therefore, in future the objects will need extra air-conditioned rooms in the depot and special showcases when they are exhibited.
Glass figures made the inside of the body visible for the first time without cutting it open. The term “glass” is a synonym for this transparency. The model builder Franz Tschackert developed the prototype of the transparent human from 1925 at the DHM. Until then, there were so-called split wood preparations of organs that were transparent and could be illuminated from behind. Until the turn of the millennium, production was still carried out in-house, most recently from acrylic glass and also for teaching purposes at universities, says Roeßiger. And there are still many loan requests. “With the emergence of new media for viewing the inside of the body, their importance has changed, the anatomical explanatory model has become a cultural-historical object.”
From RND/dpa
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