Carrier Corporate News

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GIBBS & SOELL, INC.
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Jon Shaw
CARRIER CORPORATION
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  

CARRIER ENGINEERS IMPROVE MUMMY DISPLAY CASE

SYRACUSE, N.Y., April 2 -- Carrier Corporation engineers returned to Peru today to deliver an improved version of the refrigerated display case that has been home to a frozen Inca mummy, the "Ampato Maiden" for nearly a year.

Two identical cases were donated to the Catholic University of St. Mary in Arequipa, Peru so the 500-year-old mummy could be preserved, displayed and studied by scientists.

The original case was used during a month-long display of the mummy in the headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. The other case was assembled in Peru awaiting the mummy's return. After the display, which attracted more people than had ever visited a National Geographic event, the first case was returned to Syracuse for modification.

"We were breaking new ground in designing these cases," said Dr. Charles Bullock, the Carrier engineer who led the project, "and we had very little time. No one had ever tried to preserve frozen mummified remains while displaying them at the same time. Archaeologists, anthropologists, preservation experts . . . none of us had any experience to build on.

"In the month she was on display, we saw many ways in which the case could be improved, given the luxury of time."