Scientific Analysis of Heritage Collections using XRF – Employ.ed Internship 2019

This week’s blog post comes from Cameron Perumal who recently began a 10-week Employ.ed internship in the Conservation Studio at the CRC… 

Two weeks into my Employ.ed internship, and I have already learned so much about conservation, and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry! I am currently an undergraduate Astrophysics student, and my internship entails me working with Emily Hick, the Special Collections Conservator, to research ways in which XRF can help us understand more about the collections. I’ll also be doing outreach to increase awareness on XRF and how it can be used in conservation to improve the condition and understanding of the collections held by the University of Edinburgh.

By the end of my first week, I had started my radiation training, seen the XRF in action being used by another intern, Despoina, to analyse pigments of a painting on the soundboard of a harpsichord, and been able to see the various (frankly, quite beautiful) collections stored by the University.

Intern Despoina using the new XRF machine to analyse the pigments used on the soundboard paintings of harpsichords made by the Ruckers family

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