II International Conservation Conference entitled: Problems of museums related to the preservation and conservation of collections, Szreniawa October 14-15, 2006

Due to the growing interest of the community and the growing numbers of people willing to participate in the Conference, it was decided to extend its duration to two days. Thus the conference took place on October 14-15, 2006. Its leading theme was the issue of conservation of museum collections, including in particular the issue of restoring the capacities of technical monuments. The papers discussed the problems of technology for the conservation of large collections, preventive conservation, conservation interference, etc. Technical and conservation issues related to the commissioning and use of historic objects were presented. The conference was attended by representatives of science dealing with the subject of protection of technical monuments and museum staff working for the preservation of old machines and equipment. The speakers represented 32 institutions, including e.g. Jagiellonian University, Poznań University of Agriculture, National Museum of Agriculture in Prague, Viadrina University in Frankfurt, Railway Consultancy Office in Berlin, Slovak Agriculture Museum in Nitra, and Wrocław University of Technology. The theoretical and practical problems solved in the course of everyday conservation activities were presented, among others, in the Maritime Museum in Gdańsk, State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw, Kielce Countryside Museum, Opole Countryside Museum, Association of Open-Air Museums, Open Museum of Technology Foundation, Interdepartmental Student Science Circle for the Protection of Industrial Monuments HP “Nadbór”. On the second day of the meeting, participants were shown fully operational agricultural machines and equipment as well as traditional farm work (e.g. makeshift tractors, old engines, a threshing machine, as well as demonstrations of: bread baking in a bread oven, blacksmith’s craft, ploughing with a Ursus C-328 tractor with a suspended plough, ploughing with a motor plough, ploughing and harnessing with a horse-drawn carriage). The conference participants were keenly interested in the H. Cegielski steam engine from 1919.