The solar-powered box that could save world heritage
A group of Hamilton problem-solvers have come up with a prototype for a solar-powered archive box that could help people in developing countries protect their rare heritage artifacts and documents from the elements.
After returning from India, Hamilton-based librarian and archivist Colin Clarke called on his friends Harrison King-McBain and Michael Cino, who graduated with engineering degrees from McMaster University.
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Clarke had witnessed the crumbling of Syriac Christian inscriptions and manuscripts, writings in books and on palm leaves, kept in a monastery, in humid Kerala in India last fall.
He was invited to go on the trip as the director of the Canadian Centre for Epigraphic Documents, a University of Toronto-hosted centre that works to preserve inscriptions of centuries-old artifacts and documents currently threatened or already destroyed by ISIS's violent campaign across much of Iraq and Syria.
When he got home, he called up Cino and King-McBain. They unveiled their prototype earlier this month at the University of Toronto.
The device is a bit like a reimagined mini-fridge and uses mainstream components. Librarians, like the ones Clarke met in India, would place their important documents in the container, which would control the climate and humidity for the contents.
Clarke's now hoping to raise the $3,000-$5,000 each unit is expected to cost.
"What's being lost isn't India's heritage," Clarke told CBC News. "This is the world's heritage. Future generations will judge us by this."
