In a message dated 5/23/01 7:39:58 AM EST, [email protected] writes: << Subj: RE: CS>Scientific Debate & "One Upsmanship" Date: 5/23/01 7:39:58 AM EST From: [email protected] (Ode Coyote) Reply-to: [email protected] To: [email protected] 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 >>
Ken: Except for your idea about zinc and copper having germicidal properties, from what you mentioned above, I don't see a mechanism to dissolve silver. I don't believe that acidic or basic rainwater is going to dissolve silver. An oxidizing acid (or a non-oxidizing acid together with an oxidizing agent) such as boiling nitric acid would be needed to dissolve silver. Silver is a noble metal, fairly non-reactive (except with a few things like sulfur and proteins), and not easily oxidized even when thermodynamics says it should form an oxide. Roger -- 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]>
