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How to Preserve a Wedding Gown - page 2 Vacuum packing A variation on the plastic bag method is "vacuum-packing." The premise behind this method is that the air around the gown will be removed, thus preventing "oxidation" of the gown. There are a couple of problems with this approach. The first is one of practicality: Any basic science textbook will tell you that atmospheric pressure at sea level (where most of us live) is a little under 15lbs per square inch (psi). So to make a vacuum (i.e. zero psi), your gown's container
will have to support 15lbs for every square inch of its surface area. That's over a ton per square foot! So unless you intend to store your gown in something resembling a small submarine, all that pressure will be exerted directly on your gown. Hardly practical, or desirable.What is described as "vacuum-packing" is in fact simply getting most of the air out of a plastic bag without squashing the gown. This serves no useful purpose; it only serves to increase the concentrations of plasticizer fumes in the remaining air.The second problem with vacuum-packing is the original premise of preventing "oxidation." Unless you store your gown uncleaned, where stains can oxidize (discolor over time), there is little danger from the oxygen in the air. The Ancient Egyptians did not remove the oxygen from the Great Pyramids and garments found in these have survived for thousands of years. So, provided your gown is properly cleaned before storage, there should be no problems with oxidation. Again, vacuum-packing has fortunately fallen from favor in recent years.Copyright © 1996 - 2008 Sentinel Archiving, Inc. |