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The Mechanization of Artifact Processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William J. Folan ,
John H. Rick  and
Walter Zacharchuk
William J. Folan
Affiliation:
Canadian Historic Sites Division, Ottawa, Canada
John H. Rick
Affiliation:
Canadian Historic Sites Division, Ottawa, Canada
Walter Zacharchuk
Affiliation:
Canadian Historic Sites Division, Ottawa, Canada
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Abstract

The increased costs of processing artifacts can be substantially reduced by the use of labor-saving devices in the laboratory. A standard washing machine has been modified for washing historic-period artifacts with minimal breakage. Forty-five man-hours of hand washing can be accomplished in one hour by machine, with comparable standards of cleanliness. The numbering of artifacts, using rubber stamps, can represent time savings of 80 per cent on certain classes of material. Use of a sandblaster for cleaning iron artifacts triples the output of the conventional electrolytic treatment. A ceramic pantograph and a modified diagraph show promise of reducing the time required to draw pottery sections.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 1968 , pp. 86 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1968

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References

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