New Leica imaging equipment at the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth is helping conservationists to make history and science more interesting and exciting for visiting children
As part of the National Science and Technology week in March, the Mary Rose Trust treated children from local secondary schools to a full programme of hands-on activities including looking at real artefacts from the Mary Rose under the microscope.
The Mary Rose, Henry VIII's favourite warship, famously sank before his eyes in 1545, after 36 years' faithful service.
437 years later, in 1982, the ship was raised - watched by a worldwide audience of some 60 million.
Over 29,000 artefacts were retrieved from the site, preserved to near perfection by the silt in the Solent.
Glen McConnachie, a conservator with the Trust, uses the new Leica equipment routinely in the course of his work.
"We have a whole range of materials from the Mary Rose, and before we can conserve anything we have to identify it precisely as this affects the type of conservation treatment that we use.
This bioanalysis of wood samples is the main use of our compound microscope, the Leica DM LB.
"The stereomicroscope - a Leica MZ6 with QWIN Lite image analysis software - is used for identifying other materials, like bits of leather, as well as for monitoring conditions.
Our artefacts are measured and monitored every six months for surface cracks and we can get very accurate measurements of those surface cracks with the stereomicroscope to see if there is any movement.
We also have a digital camera - Leica DC 300F - as we do a lot of conservation research here and need excellent pictures for publication.
"This is the second year we have been involved with Science Week and we quickly realised last year that kids really love to learn about conservation hands-on.
We set up the microscopes for them; just let them change the material that's going under the lenses, slightly adjust the focus and look at what they've got on the monitor.
We gave them a whole range of different materials to look at: some of the metals that have problems with surface corrosion; different types of archaeological and new leather to see how they differ as well as some wooden artefacts and a whole range of textiles, including sail cloths from the Mary Rose. Children expect an awful lot nowadays with special effects and computer technology, so this is our opportunity to demonstrate that science and history can be really exciting too."
