The reference is an old timer probably from the days when many people were on the farm and produced their own milk...and milk jugs were 2+ gallon galvanized steel affairs. [stainless today] Both zinc and silver ions have pretty much the same preservative effects and dissimilar metals in a lactic acid environment just might produce a fair amount of one or both. Similarly, silver might "dissolve" in water if the container is metal and the water has a weak acidic or basic PH. Most 'normal' [spring, well ,rain runoff etc] water does have something other than a totally neutral PH. Water barrels and the roofing shingles that caught the water were typically made from split oak which has a high tannic acid content. Charring the inside if the barrel was sometimes but not always done to let the carbon absorb much of the acid so the water would be sweet. It's doubtful that the old timers from whence the stories originated used distilled water for much of anything and glass containers were a bit more rare than today, being hand blown into moulds till the mid to late 1800s or so. Ken
At 05:57 PM 5/22/01 -0600, you wrote: >If I may comment; > >I never heard about the silver in the water barrel, but I have never >researched the issue. I have heard about the dollar in the milk jug. What >is the pH of milk? I suspect it is chemically more active than many waters. > >James-Osbourne: Holmes > >-----Original Message----- >From: Frank Key [mailto:[email protected]] >Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 12:36 PM >To: [email protected] >Subject: Re: CS>Scientific Debate & "One Upsmanship" > >Roger, > >It is safe to say that you have concluded from your experiment that silver >does not dissolve in water? > >If that is the case, what could one deduce from the old stories about the >silver dollar in the water barrel? > >Could one surmise that contact with the metallic silver is what caused the >water to stay fresh? > > >frank key > > >-- >The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. > >To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: >[email protected] -or- [email protected] >with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. > >To post, address your message to: [email protected] >Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html >List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]> > >
