Monday, August 16, 2010

The evils that beset mineral collections: Intro

This next series is on the evils to which mineral collections are heir: the things that make a collection less valuable, or less educational, than it might have been:
1. Time
2. Space
3. Temperature and temperature changes
4. Humidity and humidity changes
5. Vibration and flexure
6. Dust
7. The Sun
8. Natural disasters
9. Moving
10. Insects and other pests
11. Children and other people
12. Loans, trades, and other collectors
13. Sulfur, pyrite, and other minerals
14. Newspaper, tape, glue, and other nonarchival materials
15. Inclination, boredom, lack of discipline, and new worlds to conquer
16. Poverty, death and the disposition of goods and records

Some of these are necessary evils in having both a mineral collection and a life, but let's watch out for them.

Comments are welcome for any evils or other topics you'd like me to mention.

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