Mike,

Thanks for so expertly and simply putting your CS reflections into words
that Probably everyone can understand! I'm sure Kim and others appreciate it
as much as I do! As Ode expressed, if you adhere to certain precautions and
make something, it's probably useable and effective either for internal or
if not clear, effective for cleaning, putting on plants or for your pet.

Thanks, too, for making this Website Forum available for us!
If I can be of help, please let me know.

Best regards,
Richard Harris, 56 yr FL Pharmacist

-----Original Message-----
From: M. G. Devour [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 3:25 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: CS>Sparkles


Kim writes:
>  OK..I thought you were "supposed" to see these when you make cs....
> if you shine a light through plain water you don't see anything, after
> making cs..you see them... I thought someone mentioned that was one way
> to check your cs... so I am confused.. KIM

DL concurs:
> Thank you for asking. I've never understood this tindle thing.

The Tyndall effect causes the beam of light to become visible when you
shine a flashlight or laser pointer through your CS. Sort of like
seeing sun rays passing through small holes in the clouds, or a beam of
light in a smokey or foggy room. Both are everyday examples of the
Tyndall effect.

The light is being scattered by small particles -- normally too small
to be seen by the naked eye. It's one way to know that they're there.
The stronger the effect (the brighter the beam) the more particles.

"Sparklies" that we sometimes talk about are much bigger particles of
who-knows-what that show up as visible bright points of light in the
beam. They could be flakes of silver or oxide or whatever, or just dust
or lint from the atmosphere.  Think motes of dust floating about in the
sunshine coming in your kitchen window.

"Colloidal Silver," as the term is commonly used (or abused) usually
contains a mixture of particles of silver (or silver compounds) and
ions of silver that are actually individual atoms dissolved in the
water. Ions are absolutely too small to be seen *and* too small to
cause any light to be scattered.

Thus, only the portion of the "CS" that is made up of suspended
particles is truly colloidal and contributes to the Tyndall effect.

Strictly speaking, colloidal silver contains only particles and ionic
silver contains only ions -- but, then again, few of us actually speak
that strictly. Those that try are generally out to make a profit or
being needlessly punctilious.

The rest of us accept the fact that the "CS" we make contains both ions
and particles, both seem to impart their share of benefits to the final
product, and that it's too hard to eliminate one or the other to bother
to try -- and quite unnecessary.

Tyndall effect is normally just a good check that you're actually
getting *something* into your water. A dim Tyndall that you have to
darken the room to even see either means a very low concentration of
particles or else very *small* particles. In the latter case you won't
know a whole lot about the concentration, as you may have a good bit of
ions and not see them.

A strong Tyndall means a lot of particles, and usually a bit bigger
ones at that. If you add in an assessment of color, you'll begin to get
an idea of the size of the particles, with pale yellow or straw color
at the small end of the color scale (colorless being even smaller -- or
non-existent!). But, of course, you'll still have no idea of the ionic
content.

Bottom line? Take what you can from the more detailed and technical
discussions here, but don't worry overmuch about the details. Just
about anything you're likely to make is going to contain both particles
and ions in usable concentrations and have some beneficial effects.

If you feel you need to optimize your product for your individual
needs, then delve more deeply and pick the brains of our assembled
experts. They'll be *more* than happy to tell you all they know! <grin>

Be well,

Mike D.

[Mike Devour, Citizen, Patriot, Libertarian]
[[email protected]                        ]
[Speaking only for myself...               ]


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