Objective
The European heritage of the organ is preserved in numerous historical instruments. One major threat to this heritage is the indoor atmospheric corrosion of lead and lead-tin alloys of organ pipes. The problem has accelerated with alarming speed and there are at present no effective methods neither to prevent organ pipes from being corroded, nor to save the valuable instruments that have already been damaged. The proposed project, COLLAPSE, contains development of conservation strategies including (1) changing the environment in order to prevent pipe corrosion, (2) methods and products to clean corroded pipes and (3) methods and products to protect already corroded pipes from further corrosion. The results will be used for demonstration of the conservation strategy on a historical organ affected by corrosion, and guidelines for a European conservation strategy will be developed.