Slow Fire

A slow fire is a term used in library and information science to describe paper embrittlement resulting from acid decay. The term is taken from the title of Terry Sanders' 1987 film Slow Fires: On the preservation of the human record.

Solutions to this problem include the use of acid-free paper stocks, reformatting brittle books by microfilming, photocopying or digitization, and a variety of deacidification techniques.

Famous quotes containing the words slow and/or fire:

    For nations vague as weed,
    For nomads among stones,
    Small-statured cross-faced tribes
    And cobble-close families
    In mill-towns on dark mornings
    Life is slow dying.
    Philip Larkin (1922–1986)

    I warmed both hands before the fire of life;
    It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
    Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)