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:
“I am accustomed to think very long of going anywhere,—am slow to move. I hope to hear a response of the oracle first.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“All praise of the hawk on fire in hawk-eyed dusk be sung,
When his viperish fuse hangs looped with flames under the brand
Wing, and blest shall
Young
Green chickens of the bay and bushes cluck, “dilly dilly,
Come let us die.””
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)