The Analysis of Red Lead Endsheets in Rare Books from the Fung Ping Shan Library at the University of Hong Kong
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper presents in a clear manner the use of lead tetroxide compound as a historical biocide method used in Chinese library collections.
My only concern is the large samples that had to be taken for analyses and testing: were non-destructive analyses considered? how about micro-sampling? I would suggest adding a sentence to justify such sampling.
There are some minor book terms that should be corrected (see PDF).
Overall, the paper is of good quality.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
The paper presents in a clear manner the use of lead tetroxide compound as a historical biocide method used in Chinese library collections.
My only concern is the large samples that had to be taken for analyses and testing: were non-destructive analyses considered? how about micro-sampling? I would suggest adding a sentence to justify such sampling.
-> we added a sentence on non-destructive analyses and micro-sampling? In our case the orange papers were collected from books with broken bindings, that were part of a conservation treatment, where the orange paper were removed anyway and stored separately. Line 206-210, marked in yellow
There are some minor book terms that should be corrected (see PDF).
-> changed in the text and marked in yellow
Overall, the paper is of good quality.
-> We thank Reviewer 1 for his/her comments.
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript from Pascal Querner, Jody Beenk and Robert Linke titled “The Analysis of Red Lead Endsheets in Rare Books from the Fung Ping Shan Library at the University of Hong Kong” aims to analyse the orange coloured paper of some of the book of the Library in order to understand why they are undamaged by insects.
The manuscript is well written and elaborates the topic in a comprehensively way.
Clear results obtained by using SEM and energy dispersive X-ray Fluorescence reveal high concentrations of red lead (Pb3O4) in the undamaged papers, and only very few traces of lead in the damaged papers.
The discussion of the past and present situations regarding pests control and conservation of books collection in different geographical areas is interesting.
Overall, the subject is relevant both for paper scientists and for the curators of the collections.
I believe that the manuscript is worthy of publication in Heritage as it is.
Author Response
The manuscript from Pascal Querner, Jody Beenk and Robert Linke titled “The Analysis of Red Lead Endsheets in Rare Books from the Fung Ping Shan Library at the University of Hong Kong” aims to analyse the orange coloured paper of some of the book of the Library in order to understand why they are undamaged by insects.
The manuscript is well written and elaborates the topic in a comprehensively way.
Clear results obtained by using SEM and energy dispersive X-ray Fluorescence reveal high concentrations of red lead (Pb3O4) in the undamaged papers, and only very few traces of lead in the damaged papers.
The discussion of the past and present situations regarding pests control and conservation of books collection in different geographical areas is interesting.
Overall, the subject is relevant both for paper scientists and for the curators of the collections.
I believe that the manuscript is worthy of publication in Heritage as it is.
-> We thank Reviewer 2 for his/her comments.
Reviewer 3 Report
The topic of the article results quite interesting. The authors want to analyse different red painted paper sheets used in the structure of traditional chinese bindings and their capability to discourage an eventual entomological attack thanks to the presence of toxic lead-based pigments.
Although the interesting argument of the research, the article results to be unclear and its structure confusing.
The introduction is extremely generic, browsing through all the entomological species that usually attack the library and archival heritage as well as the different methods employed to fight the pests. These information are not useful to the aim of the article and they are not used to discuss the presented results.
Moreover the series of different paragraphs in which the text is divided makes reading and comprehension of the presented general background extremely difficult.
The parte related to the RED-Orange paper in China is instead extremely interesting but it should be studied more in depth.
Regarding the material section the description of the sample is too general. It would have been interesting to have additional information on the volumes from which the samples were taken such as bibliographic information, their dating, etc.
Regarding the results section, a very general and superficial presentation and interpretation of the results is given. Few samples are presented (only two/four samples on 10 analysed paper sheets). The SEM micrographs are not discussed (in the case of damaged orange paper are not even cited in the text), different magnifications correspond to different samples, and the reader has no help to interpret the appearance of the sample surface i.e. to individuate the read lead crystals from others elements present on the sample surface.
The presence of different elements on the EDX spectrum is not discussed enough or it is generally attributed to filling materials or impurities of the paper production without references to support the hypothesis.
The discussion section partly resumes the introduction with a very superficial discussion of the results obtained from the analysis. No-interpretation of the results, very superficial explanation on the bookbinder's eventual consciousness of the capability of the red-lead painted paper to be insect repellent, "personal observations" on the use of biocide treatments around the world and the centuries.
The conclusion section is totally absent.
In general, the article is not well structured and most of the text is too general and thus not useful to the results comprehension and discussion.
The quality of the english should be improved as well as the technical language, not very accurate and imprecise for example in the description of the employed microscope technique, the elements in the EDX spectrum, the chemical compounds etc.
Although the research topic is interesting, the paper cannot be accepted in the presented form.
Author Response
The topic of the article results quite interesting. The authors want to analyse different red painted paper sheets used in the structure of traditional hinese bindings and their capability to discourage an eventual entomological attack thanks to the presence of toxic lead-based pigments.
Although the interesting argument of the research, the article results to be unclear and its structure confusing.
The Introduction Is extremely generic, browsing through all the entomological species that usually attack the library and archival heritage as well as the different methods employed to fight the pests. These information are not useful to the aim of the article and they are not used to discuss the presented results.
-> we shortened the introduction a bit and added new titles to the sections. We think that the readers needs an introductions to 1) insect pests in libraries, 2) paper and book making in China and 3) tradition and production of the investigated orange paper. We moved the informations about the library of the Hong Kong University to the end, as this was maybe confusing in the previous version. changes marked in yellow, we hope the paper is more clear and readable now.
Moreover the series of different paragraphs in which the text is divided makes reading and comprehension of the presented general background extremely difficult.
-> changes marked in yellow, we hope the paper is more clear and readable now.
The parte related to the RED-Orange paper in China is instead extremely interesting but it should be studied more in depth.
-> we don’t know how more information’s from the literature or our experiment could be added to the paper.
Regarding the material section the description of the sample is too general. It would have been interesting to have additional information on the volumes from which the samples were taken such as bibliographic information, their dating, etc.
-> changes marked in yellow. Line 206-210. Not more information’s are available, as the works on the books was part of conservation work and not of a financed research project. No external funding was available, we funded this study by ourselves. We also believe that bibliographic informations and dating in more detail are not so relevant for our results.
Regarding the results section, a very general and superficial presentation and interpretation of the results is given. Few samples are presented (only two/four samples on 10 analysed paper sheets). The SEM micrographs are not discussed (in the case of damaged orange paper are not even cited in the text), different magnifications correspond to different samples, and the reader has no help to interpret the appearance of the sample surface i.e. to individuate the read lead crystals from others elements present on the sample surface.
-> changes marked in yellow. We used the pictures that presented the results the most clearly. All undamaged samples revealed the same chemical composition and surface structure and the same is true for the damage samples. See line 238 and 260-263.
The presence of different elements on the EDX spectrum is not discussed enough or it is generally attributed to filling materials or impurities of the paper production without references to support the hypothesis.
-> changes marked in yellow. It was not the aim of the paper to analyze and discuss all components in the EDX spectrum, but to see if led was present or not. It is also hard to interpret this results as comparison are not easy to find.
The discussion section partly resumes the introduction with a very superficial discussion of the results obtained from the analysis. No-interpretation of the results, very superficial explanation on the bookbinder's eventual consciousness of the capability of the red-lead painted paper to be insect repellent, "personal observations" on the use of biocide treatments around the world and the centuries.
-> changes marked in yellow.
The conclusion section is totally absent.
-> conclusions were added, changes marked in yellow.
In general, the article is not well structured and most of the text is too general and thus not useful to the results comprehension and discussion.
-> changes marked in yellow.
The quality of the english should be improved as well as the technical language, not very accurate and imprecise for example in the description of the employed microscope technique, the elements in the EDX spectrum, the chemical compounds etc.
-> changes marked in yellow. One of our authors is a native speaker, so we believe that the English is fine. We leave it to the editor, if changes of the English is needed.
Although the research topic is interesting, the paper cannot be accepted in the presented form.
-> We hope that the paper in the present form was improved
Reviewer 4 Report
The article presents the results of the analysis of Red Lead Endsheets in Rare Books from the Fung Ping Shan Library at the University of Hong Kong. The idea presented is very interesting, and the results can be implemented. Although the paper is very well-written, it needs a revision in some points as indicated below:
- Chalk is not specifically a mineral name. Is it calcite or aragonite?
- Extend the Hanzi (Chinese character) to all names written in pinyin (e.g. huang bo, and so on).
I believe that overall, the paper deserves to be published in a prestigious journal like Heritage after the indicated improvements.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The article presents the results of the analysis of Red Lead Endsheets in Rare Books from the Fung Ping Shan Library at the University of Hong Kong. The idea presented is very interesting, and the results can be implemented. Although the paper is very well-written, it needs a revision in some points as indicated below:
Chalk is not specifically a mineral name. Is it calcite or aragonite?
-> changes marked in yellow. The SEM cannot differentiate between calcite or aragonite, therefore we added “calcium carbonate”.
Extend the Hanzi (Chinese character) to all names written in pinyin (e.g. huang bo, and so on).
-> changes marked in yellow.
I believe that overall, the paper deserves to be published in a prestigious journal like Heritage after the indicated improvements.
-> We thank Reviewer 4 for his/her comments.
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
The introduction has been improved in its readability and results to be more comprehensible;
general improvements have been made on the structure of the paper which is now acceptable;
conclusions have been added.
In my personal opinion, I think it would have been necessary to provide information about the manuscripts in order to enable future scholars to exactly identify the original artefact on which the analysis has been performed.
