• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.373-381
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• 2009

To preserve steel cultural properties on display outdoors, the surface of these relics is processed with a covering treatment, which is a typical anti-corrosion method. Since the registered cultural heritage of Korea No. 78 Locomotive at Jangdan Station of Gyeongui Line will be treated by preservation process and displayed in the open outdoor area, effective surface covering agents were selected through testing to prevent the corrosion of the locomotive. The mixed wax are based on two types of microcrystalline wax which is one of regular surface covering agents for locomotives and bee‘s wax. For the weather resistance test, 3 types of wax were applied to each specimen of the locomotive and the specimens were tested in the Xenon-Arc Accelerated Weathering Tester for 1000 hours in accordance with the ISO 4892-1981 criteria and the test results were compared. As a result, on the surface of the specimen coated with the bee's wax, a whitening event appears after 400 hours which causes aging, and the specimens coated by the microcrystalline wax showed signs of a whitening event after 800 hours. The moisture contact angle with the microcrystalline wax coating was also less than with the bee's wax. Therefore, it was found that the high temperature microcrystalline wax is the most effective coating agent in terms of weather resistance and moisture blocking capability and the high temperature microcrystalline wax was adopted for coating the surface of the locomotive.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.389-395
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• 2015

The composition of the Martes flavigula diet has been extensively studied, but little is known about its insect component. This study characterized the insect diet and insect nest materials in the feces of M. flavigula. A total of 952 fecal samples were collected in Jirisan National Park from January 2009 to November 2011, and 1379 species or taxonomic groups were identified. M. flavigula fed on insects (8.7%) and bee wax (5.0%), which comprised 2.9% and 4.4% of the dry weight of M. flavigula feces, respectively. A total of 12 insect species belonging to 8 families in 3 orders were identified. The most frequently found insects were Hymenoptera (frequency of occurrence, FO, 89.1), including Vespa simillima simillima (FO, 37.3) and Vespula koreensis koreensis (FO, 20.0). The Vespidae constituted the majority of the insect diet in autumn when the diversity of marten's prey was strongly reduced, probably because the numbers of social insects were sufficient for M. flavigula. In addition, the data suggest that M. flavigula attacks the nests of social wasps in late autumn when males do not have a venomous sting and new queens are less aggressive than workers. Bee wax appeared in all seasons and the highest rate was from spring to early summer. However, the remains of honeybees were not found in feces; thus, M. flavigula presumably eats honey but not honeybees.

• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.13
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• pp.23-31
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• 2012

The object artifacts of this study are the iron artifacts owned by the Kyunghee University Central Museum. The surfaces of the iron artifacts are opaque due to the coated materials which are presumed to be paraffin or bee's wax while they are plate-shaped and exist in thickly exfoliated condition caused by severe corrosion developed on the overall surfaces. Therefore, in order to remove the coated materials away from the surfaces of the artifacts rather safely, reversibility tests have been carried out and the conservation treatment was performed upon the basis of and in application of the experimental results. The study methodologies are that: first, the FT-IR analysis was carried out to determine the ingredients of the coating-treated material on the surface; second, by applying various kinds of organic solvents, the kinds of agents that allow the artifact's surface-coating material to be reversible have been identified through experiments; third, the most suitable agent for removing coating material was selected and applied to the real artifacts on the basis of the results of the reversibility tests. Results from the study: first, as a result of the FT-IR analysis, the coating agent used on the artifacts was identified to be of the same ingredients as those of paraffin; second, among organic solvents, xylene, toluene, trichloroethylene and methyl alcohol were identified to be usable for dissolving paraffin whereas toluene was judged to be the most suitable for removing the coating agent; third, when applying the selected agents on the real artifacts, due to the fact that removing the whole paraffin might cause the artifact to disintegrate, the paraffin of only the part that covered the surfaces opaquely was removed using cotton swab or gauze, thus completing the conservation treatment.