To protect centuries-old parchment manuscripts from humidity-induced decay, the curators of a national archive recently replaced the facility's traditional refrigeration-based cooling coils with advanced chemical desiccant air-drying units. Over the six months following the replacement, sensor logs confirmed that relative humidity in the vault remained perfectly stabilized within the ideal target range of 45% to 50%. Nevertheless, physical inspections conducted at the end of the period revealed that the rate of structural fiber cracking on the parchment manuscripts was twice as high as it had been during the six months prior to the equipment change. Concluding that the new desiccant units were directly responsible for the accelerated deterioration, the lead conservator recommended re-installing the original refrigeration-based system.
Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the lead conservator's argument?
- During the six months following the equipment change, manuscripts stored in an adjacent vault served by the original refrigeration-based system experienced no increase in fiber cracking, despite being handled with the same frequency as those in the updated vault.Cevap
- BThe chemical desiccant units consume 35 percent less electrical power per month than the older refrigeration-based cooling coils consumed during peak summer operation.
- CInspections of modern paper documents stored under the new desiccant system showed no evidence of accelerated fiber breakdown over the same six-month period.
- DWhen the vault temperature was lowered by two degrees during a routine system calibration, the rate of manuscript fiber cracking under the desiccant system temporarily decreased.
- EThe archived parchment manuscripts were produced using historical animal skin preparation techniques that make them inherently more fragile than 19th-century rag paper.