September 11, 2001 is the day one when of the most famous bastions of "capitalist might", the World Trade Center, fell down like a ton of bricks from a massive terrorist attack. Thousands of people were dead in a matter of minutes, and the bustling financial district where once stood the famous twin towers turned instantly into a morbid graveyard of rubble called the Ground Zero.
Anyone who followed this dark path of history would know that the world-shaking event grounded the economy of Manhattan into a halt as billions of dollars in office space has been damaged and destroyed. The following days, the United States launched a terrific war against terror and hunted the terrorists to the ends of the earth in retribution. The stock exchange closed for a week due to enormous financial losses.
Rebuilding Ground Zero has been difficult to do. Many delays in construction designs, changing cost estimates, and ever-real security concerns are up to now plaguing any recovery efforts.
One side to this restoration initiative has been the recovery of documents found at Ground Zero. Around 5,000 documents salvaged from the disaster site have been entrusted to one particular consultant team, who wondered how to solve the problem facing them. For starters, the documents were wet, with mold infestation and traces of diesel fuel already embedded in the materials. Understandably, these documents were not immediately examined in Ground Zero, not until the place has been cleared and the ground stabilized. They lay in four feet of water most of the time. They were packed haphazardly by the rescue team in file cabinets, rolled stacks, and bundled plastics.
The conservators wanted to recover the information contained in the documents, and not the documents themselves. With the severe conditions, they turned to restoration experts for their input on how to restore the documents. Experts responded to their inquiries and one of their recommendations was to use document freeze drying methodology.
The document freeze drying technique they recommended was the use of vacuum to sublimate the water particles. This method was a better choice for the stability of the ink or dye in the materials. With vacuum freeze drying, the ink need not be in further contact with water during drying and would not bleed. The document freeze drying using vaccum would also make possible the careful separation of pages that were stuck together.
Document freeze drying would also allow diesel fuel that mixed with water to be extracted. The diesel fuel would just join with the ice in the condenser during the document freeze drying method. Some odor of fuel would still remain, but overall, document freeze drying would be effective. As to the molds that have set in, the document freeze drying method is expected to kill most of the mold culture and render them dormant. After document freeze drying, they should be brushed off, photographed or photocopied to recover content.
With this knowledge, the conservators began their journey to restore the mute testimonies to one of America's broken dreams -- once called the World Trade Center.
