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] [mdev...@eskimo.com ] [Speaking only for myself... ] -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. Instructions for unsubscribing may be found at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@eskimo.com>
