BRISTOL 401: an old battered instruction manual
The bad state of conservation of this old Instruction Manual, a rare and desirable item for a Bristol enthusiast, prompted me to try to refurbish it
Damage everywhere: the manual has been solied with oil, soot, the cover has gone, all the pages are dog-eared, sometimes ripped and adhesive tape has been glued to fix the pages together
Following the instructions of a classic treaty about the conservation of old books, the adhesive tape was carefully removed with the help of the jet of hot air from a hair dryer
Those nice old-fashioed clips were then removed
The pages are now free
Each page has to be treated with care to remove the 'ears', though the idea of cleaning them using a eraser was too time-consuming
The fascinating page listing the tools, noting dryly that 'the illustration of the tool equipment is self-explanatory, therefore no descriptive matter is given relating to it'
The pages are now put in a orderly pile and a clean sheet of A5 paper is placed between one original page and another. A substantial weigth will be applied before the next stage, to allow for some 'flattening' of the several crests and bends of the original pages
This is a very nice and well-made book. I bought it in New York many years ago as a tribute to my love for all books; today it was extremely helpful in dismantling the original Manual and the first stages of its restoration
