Accelerated Ageing of Paper: Some Ideas on its Practical Benefit

After demonstrating the many inconsistencies in what is believed to be the basis and the result of accelerated ageing, suggestions are made as to how to perform accelerated ageing and how to draw conclusions from it: The method (dry or moist heat) does not matter a great deal. More important for this is that any method can only provide relative results: one paper is more stable than another, a certain component brought into the paper by a conservation treatment, or a variation of this treatment, influences its stability for the better or worse. Finally, an idea is given as to how this principle can be used for defining stability classes for paper production.