Dissimilar metals in an electrolyte [acid or basic] = battery + electron exchanges and so on. Electrolytic corrosion. Ken
At 01:22 PM 5/23/01 EDT, you wrote: >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]> > >
