The scientific collection of ISEP Museum: Grenet and Leclanché cells

ISEP Museum was founded in 1999. It stores the memory of industrial school dated from the second half of XIX century. The education, at that time, was very practical and the methodology was based on models and tools. The collections are formed by 3 main typological groups: objects, prints/drawings and photos, a total of about 10 thousand pieces. The complexity of this collection causes multiple challenges concerning to conservation and management subjects. Recently, the main concern focus on the objects, because the lack of technical interventions by specialists. For instance, the Grenet and Leclanché cells are two case studies that show the prominent need of a technical intervention. This article presents a historical contextualization of cells, their composition and the conservation state of their constituent materials. The obtained results will attend to clarify further conservation and restoration approaches.