Computed Radiography of Artifacts from the USS Monitor

Eric Nordgren
The Mariners’ Museum
100 Museum Drive Newport News, VA 23606
(757) 591-7734

Abstract
Conservators at The Mariners’ Museum (TMM) are preserving artifacts and large components recovered by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from the wreck of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor which sank in
1862. As part of the conservation process, artifacts are evaluated prior to treatment using NDE methods, primarily computed
X-radiography (CR).

CR imaging allows conservators to look through corrosion layers and calcareous marine crusts or “concretions” that have
formed on Monitor artifacts underwater and ascertain their condition prior to preservation. The information gained includes
concretion thickness, material makeup and morphology of the artifact, and the extent of corrosion, cracking or loss of
structural integrity. CR also reveals hidden features, construction and manufacturing techniques that add to historical
knowledge.

CR image processing allows for detection and highlighting of features less apparent with conventional film radiography while
minimizing environmental impact by eliminating the need for film chemistry.

All of the information gathered from CR has a direct bearing on the planning and execution of conservation treatments and
the museum display of Monitor artifacts. Case studies of the Worthington bilge pumps, Dahlgren gun tools and other objects
from the ship will be presented.

Conservation of the USS Monitor at The Mariners’ Museum

The American Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was designed by Swedish-American engineer John Ericsson and built in
just 100 days by a consortium of companies for the US Navy in 1862. The Monitor featured the world’s first ship-mounted
rotating gun turret among many other innovations. Along with its Confederate adversary, the CSS Virginia, the Monitor
proved that iron-armored warships were the future of naval warfare. After engaging the Virginia in the second day of the
Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862, which ended in a draw, the Monitor continued to serve until December 31, when
it sank in a storm off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina while being towed to a new area of operations.

The wreck of the Monitor was discovered in 1973 in 240 ft of water and archaeological studies and recovery efforts have
continued to the present day under the management of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Monitor
National Marine Sanctuary. Over 200 tons of artifacts have been recovered from the wreck, including the Monitors’ gun
turret, engine, condenser, propeller, and personal effects of the crew. While the majority of the recovered artifacts are made
of ferrous or cupreous metal, a wide variety of other organic and inorganic materials are represented, including wood, rope,
wool, rubber, glass, and ceramic. The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News Virginia is the repository for all artifacts from the
USS Monitor, and the conservation staff at the museum’s Batten Conservation Center is charged with their preservation.

Before Monitor artifacts can be placed on display for the public, they must undergo a careful conservation process, which
involves nondestructive evaluation, cleaning, and stabilization. As most of the artifacts are initially covered with corrosion
and a thick calcareous marine crust called “concretion” which obscures important information, nondestructive evaluation
(NDE) methods and radiography in particular are very useful for gathering as much information as possible before
conservation work begins. In most cases, the concretion is removed from artifacts during treatment, allowing the surface to be
seen and aiding in stabilization, but doing so without the maximum amount of information about what lies beneath the crust
can be detrimental to the historic object inside.

Computed Radiography (CR) in Historic Preservation

The application of radiography to the study of historic and archaeological objects and works of fine art is not new, and even
dates back to early uses shortly after Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895 (Lang and Middleton, preface). Conventional

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film-based radiographs have been used to look under the surface of historic objects and learn about their structure and
condition for many years, and with the advent of recent advances in digital capture and processing systems, the historic
preservation field has begun to use their potential for fast, high resolution, versatile imaging with minimal environmental
impact.

As the advance of digital radiography technologies like CR has been driven by the needs of medical and industrial
radiography, those wishing to use CR for the study of historic artifacts are now working with systems optimized for these
fields. In the case of recovered artifacts and complex mechanical components of the Monitor, the application of CR is
most similar to that used in modern industrial radiography. It has been found that an “industrial radiography approach” and
reference to published standards such as ASTM Standard E-2007-08 “Standard Guide for Computed Radiography” have
been effective in developing working CR procedures. The adaptation of modern industrial radiography practices follows well
considering that many artifacts from the Monitor are essentially industrial components which have experienced alteration after
140 years underwater.

CR Equipment and Workflow at The Mariners’ Museum

CR NDE equipment at The Mariners’ Museum’s Batten Conservation Lab includes an 300 kV portable X-ray tube which is
normally mounted in an 8 ft × 10 ft lead-shielded radiography room with wide opening double doors to accommodate larger
artifacts and components. The primary shielding on the enclosure walls allows for flexible exposure geometry. In most cases,
a source to detector distance of 80-100 cm is maintained. All staff wear TLD exposure badges and a digital X-ray detector is
used to monitor emissions. If CR of larger components such as sections of the Monitor’s engine is required, the portable X-ray
unit can be tripod-mounted and operated in the open air with appropriate safety protocols. Radiographic images are captured
on phosphor imaging plates (IPs) and processed on a Fuji DynamIX XG-NDT CR system provided by a donation from
Fujifilm NDT Systems. Imaging plates are normally exposed in vinyl cassettes with front and rear screens to filter out some
lower energy X-rays and minimize reduction in image quality due to scatter. As the IPs can be handled in subdued light and no
film-based radiography is done at TMM, it is not necessary to have darkroom or chemical developing facilities, which saves
on the space and cost required, and reduces TMM’s environmental impact.

The Mariners’ Museum is also fortunate to have had additional radiography support from the NDE department of Northrop
Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding, which has generously provided guidance in developing TMM CR procedures, as well
as supplemented our in-house capabilities by performing radiographic examinations of Monitor components requiring higher-
energy X-ray sources than those available at TMM.

CR images of a given Monitor artifact are normally taken at an initial estimated exposure based on experience with the
thickness, condition, and material type. A typical exposure for a less massive concreted object of 1 in. thickness would be
140 kV at 3 mA for 150 seconds. The short time required to read the IP and capture an initial digital image allows the
first image to be evaluated before adjustments to the voltage, current, exposure time, and geometry are made and further
radiographs taken. With experience it has often been possible to obtain a well-exposed CR image in a few minutes.

After the initial capture, the initial unprocessed radiography is saved in DICONDE format. The radiograph is then evaluated on
a high-resolution grayscale monitor in subdued lighting conditions. At this point, image processing tools such as pixel value,
contrast filters, leveling and brightness, and magnification are applied in order to determine if a satisfactory image has been
obtained of all relevant features. Leveling and brightness adjustments often allow a wide range of information to be obtained
from one exposure, however, it may be determined at this stage that further exposures are necessary to gain information about
elements of differing density and thickness. Other processing tools, such as sharpening and edge enhancement are applied as
needed to discern important details, such as corrosion, cracking, or manufacturing marks, but care is taken not to over-process
the images, creating excessive noise or image “morphing” which distorts the original image data. In evaluating the image, the
conservator may gain information on concretion thickness, material makeup, density, and morphology of the artifact, and the
extent of corrosion, cracking or loss of structural integrity. Hidden features such as construction and manufacturing techniques
may also be revealed, adding to historical knowledge. Following evaluation, the CR files are archived in two redundant storage
systems to ensure they will be available for later study.

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 Figure 1: CR of port side Worthington bilge pump from Figure 2: CR of Worthington pump damping cylinder
the USS Monitor showing concretion crust, pump body, head showing differential density due to corrosion
plunger, valves and shaft packing gland. of cast iron “graphitization” 120 kV 3 mA, 120s.

Artifact Case Studies

Two steam-powered water pumps made by the H.R. Worthington Company of New York were installed in the Monitor’s
engine room and provided feed water to the boilers, as well as acted at bilge pumps. Both the port and starboard side pumps
appeared to be well preserved, but were completely covered with thick calcareous concretion, and the state of preservation
of the cast iron, brass and organic components inside was not known. With assistance from Northrop Grumman Newport
News, the port side pump was inspected at an 8 MeV linear accelerator radiography facility which was able to penetrate the
nearly 10 in. thickness of the pump body casting and provide clear images of the interior. (Figure 1) Internal components
in an excellent state of preservation could be seen as well as the edge of the castings preserved below the thick concretion
crusts. Differing densities, indicated by variations in the grayscale images indicated the materials present as well as differing
states of preservation of the cast iron. This can also be clearly seen in the image of the damping cylinder head taken at TMM,
(Figure 1) in which much of the original iron has been lost from the cast iron alloy due to corrosion, resulting in a carbon rich
phase. Observing this and small cracks which can be more easily seen with CR edge enhancements indicated that extreme
care would be required in preserving these components due to the advanced state of deterioration. Additionally, these CR
images guided TMM conservators in the task of removing the concretion without damaging the object surface, and planning
the disassembly of the mechanical components. When possible without damage, Monitor artifacts are disassembled in order
to remove chloride salts more effectively from all surfaces, as salts left in the artifact may promote future deterioration.

The Monitor was armed with two 11 in. smoothbore Dahlgren shell guns, mounted in the first rotating gun turret to be placed
onboard a ship. When the turret was recovered from the seafloor in 2002, the guns, gun carriages, and over 500 artifacts were
found inside. Among them was this gun tool called a shot ladle (Figure 3), used to unload the cannonballs from the muzzle
loading Dahlgren guns. It consisted of a “scoop” of sheet copper fastened to a wooden plug. Though this could be determined
from visual inspection, the method of fastening and internal arrangement was not known prior to CR. Digital radiography
revealed that the copper and the interior of the wood were in excellent condition, and that the copper was permanently
fastened onto the wooden plug with copper alloy nails which penetrated deeply into the wood. This was quite important as
it showed the object to be a true “inseparable composite” of metal and organic materials, as it was clear that attempting to
separate the two materials would result in damage to both. As a result it was determined that the shot ladle would need to be
treated with a conservation process which was safe and effective for both materials.

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 Figure 3: “Shot ladle” recovered from Monitor’s turret, consisting of a copper alloy “scoop” permanently fastened to
a wood plug with copper alloy nails. Brass screws (middle left) fastened the long wrought iron handle180 kV 3 mA 150s.

Observations on CR of Monitor Artifacts

The application of CR to the NDE imagine of artifacts from the Monitor has been very successful and has allowed a
significant savings in time and resources over the use of conventional film radiography. The ability to continuously vary
the contrast and brightness during evaluation of the digital radiograph has significant advantages in terms of flexibility over
a well-exposed film X-ray. It is apparent however, that as with digital photography, a properly exposed image is the best
starting point as it allows for the maximum amount of information without excessive processing time or potential distortion.
A properly exposed CR radiograph requires sufficient energy (quanta) and therefore an adequate exposure time at a given
tube current. As the source at TMM is limited to 3 mA current, longer exposure times of several minutes are sometimes
required for thicker or denser objects, and there are some objects which require a higher energy source. It is interesting
that while it is often anecdotally stated that CR requires less exposure to X-rays than film to form a high quality image, our
experience to date as well as that of some other CR practitioners suggests that this may not always be the case (Mango and
Rossilhe). Further experience in CR imaging of the wide range of artifacts from the Monitor will bring new challenges and
allow greater refinement of radiographic techniques at TMM, which have already become an indispensable part of the process
of preserving this historic ship.

Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank his colleagues at The Mariners’ Museum and Ike Isenhour of Northrop Grumman Newport News
for their assistance. Special thanks to Fujifilm NDT Systems for their donation and making this work possible.

Sources
1. ASTM Standard E-2007-08 Standard Guide for Computed Radiography.
2. Lang, J., and A. Middleton, Radiography of Cultural Material. 2nd Ed. Elsevier Butterworh-Heinemann, Oxford. 2005.
3. Mango, S. and J. Roussilhe. “Myths Versus Reality in Computer Radiography Image Quality.” 2008.
http://www.true-north.biz/copywriting_samples/NDT_Mythbusters_WP.pdf

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