Currently, in order to stabilize iron objects from the sea, they have to be placed in a chemical bath or electrolysis used to leach out salt. A lot of this technology came out back in 1962, starting with the recovery of the cargo from the blockade-runner Modern Greece off Fort Fisher, North Carolina. Right now, this process is also being used on the turret of the USS Monitor.
The new processes experimented on metal shavings and bolts from the Hunley. It took 18 months using traditional methods to conserve other blocks, but just ten days under subcritical treatment. The newest reactor holds 40 liters and is now being used to conserve a shell from the Fort Sumter National Monument.
Two years ago, it took six years to conserve two cannons from the CSS Alabama. Using the subcritical process would have taken just six months. The next step in the new technology might be to make a chamber big enough to hold the eight-ton cannons from the USS Monitor which are currently being conserved in the traditional way in Virginia.
Quite a Scientific Breakthrough. --Old B-Runner
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