h4rdware
Fly on the Wall
...
BTW a few incidental stories about silver that some of you may not know about already...
During a trip to Russia in 2000, I visited a small rural village where I was at some point shown a huge shiny metal container in the forest, built to hold water. It was owned by the local orthodox church. I was told they kept 'holy water' in there for the church. But the details are interesting - they produced this 'holy water' by throwing a pure silver cross into the container and leaving it there. It had to be silver. Now that sounds like a classic belief system, but I made a mental note. A good scientist learns not to ignore 'old knowledge' because even the most unlikely behaviour can hide practical facts, esp if it survives many generations.
The second story is kind of similar, but even more interesting. A recipie from a (once again Russian) cookbook, dating from the mid 1700's describes an interesting way to make an unusual dairy product - kind of like yoghurt but not really yoghurt. It involves fermenting milk in a container with a pure silver coin placed at the bottom. If you use any other kind of coin (or forget to use the coin) the milk turns bad, fermentation goes somewhat offcourse, and the recipie doesn't work.
Third story - I recently found out that for many years, silver nitrate was dropped into the eyes of new babies to prevent/kill infections carried from the mother. It was dangerous if carelessly overdoesed, but was otherwise highly effective. This practice stopped when antibiotics were developed, effectively replacing it.
Conclusion: Silver is a powerful biocide. It has been used throughout history to fend off infection and spoiled food and water. But you won't find much more than footnotes, if anything, in modern medicine and especially food production literature. It may never recover such use (unless ABs run out of rope, but pharmas will always be waiting to offer something else), but it does show just how immensely useful this stuff is....
BTW a few incidental stories about silver that some of you may not know about already...
During a trip to Russia in 2000, I visited a small rural village where I was at some point shown a huge shiny metal container in the forest, built to hold water. It was owned by the local orthodox church. I was told they kept 'holy water' in there for the church. But the details are interesting - they produced this 'holy water' by throwing a pure silver cross into the container and leaving it there. It had to be silver. Now that sounds like a classic belief system, but I made a mental note. A good scientist learns not to ignore 'old knowledge' because even the most unlikely behaviour can hide practical facts, esp if it survives many generations.
The second story is kind of similar, but even more interesting. A recipie from a (once again Russian) cookbook, dating from the mid 1700's describes an interesting way to make an unusual dairy product - kind of like yoghurt but not really yoghurt. It involves fermenting milk in a container with a pure silver coin placed at the bottom. If you use any other kind of coin (or forget to use the coin) the milk turns bad, fermentation goes somewhat offcourse, and the recipie doesn't work.
Third story - I recently found out that for many years, silver nitrate was dropped into the eyes of new babies to prevent/kill infections carried from the mother. It was dangerous if carelessly overdoesed, but was otherwise highly effective. This practice stopped when antibiotics were developed, effectively replacing it.
Conclusion: Silver is a powerful biocide. It has been used throughout history to fend off infection and spoiled food and water. But you won't find much more than footnotes, if anything, in modern medicine and especially food production literature. It may never recover such use (unless ABs run out of rope, but pharmas will always be waiting to offer something else), but it does show just how immensely useful this stuff is....
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