Great progress was made at the beginning of the month on the port carriage! The wrought iron side plate AND the wood inboard part were removed from the gun support. Here are some photos… The side plate being pushed by two hydraulic jacks. It worked but the plate was still tight at the bottom (see [...]

As mentioned on July 8th, several unsuccessful attempts in the removal of the wheels led us to plan B:  Disassemble the side plates by removal about 30 bolts… Fortunately, we have not had to remove every single bolt (yet), but by using Ridgid screw extractors we’ve made a great start! Removing only the bolts around the wheels released enough [...]

Last February, we posted a blog about the manometer found next to the engine and how its scales were made of German silver (the same material that is possibly on the object Will discussed last week- see post of June 29). Well, since this winter, more work was performed on this device and its treatment [...]

As our last blog mentioned, we made several attempts to remove the carriage wheels last week. And the verdict was… very little or “no” success. These wheels are really, REALLY well embedded in their original location. We decided to move forward with our plans and started removing the side brackets (wrought iron plates) of the [...]

Last week we were able to remove the other cap square of the carriage along with the nine bolts that were maintaining it. Another significant copper alloy part removed! See Gary below having almost removed the cap square in the left image and the surface underneath it once removed, on the right.      Our [...]

 Monitor’s two gun carriages are the focus of a new disassembly project. The gun carriages are composed of copper alloys, wrought iron and wood.  The iron and copper components are in contact, which causes galvanic corrosion. Contact between metals of different nobility will generate, over time, the protection of the more noble metal to the [...]

Chris Daley, Historical Clothing Supervisor of Jamestown/Yorktown, visited us last Tuesday to give his expert advice on the wool coat recovered from the turret in 2002. Chris was amazed to see how well preserved the coat is and how much of it remains. We now know that about 80% of the garment has survived (in [...]

A halberd recovered from Jamestown entered the conservation lab last week! We are assisting Colonial Williamsburg conservators with the treatment. The weapon consists of an axe blade (iron), a hook (on the opposite side from the axe), and the iron head is topped with a spike (the spike is bent, see picture below). The handle [...]

This is a nice shot by Jason from photography of the three recently conserved Dahlgren gun tools: a sponge on the left, a Robinson worm in the middle, and a shot ladle on the right. Handling the objects during the photo session reminded us of how fit the gunners had to be to do their [...]

A beautifully preserved manometer was found attached to the engine. The gauge, which measures temperature and pressure, is currently under treatment. It has been dismantled as much as possible to assure better removal of the chlorides (e.g. the “conservators’ nightmare”). The main body of the gauge is made of copper alloy, and two wood stoppers [...]