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If you coat some paper with silver chloride and expose it to light, you will find out that the silver chloride will turn black where the light falls on it. If you cover it with something like a leaf, the part covered by the leaf will remain white.

If compounds of silver like silver bromide, silver chloride or silver iodide are exposed to light, they break down to form tiny particles of silver that look black. An English scientist called William Talbot used this reaction to make photographs.

To develop a photograph, a thin layer of silver bromide is deposited on a sheet of photographic paper, and exposed to light. This produces a negative image from which the photograph is printed. Digital photography succeeded this technique which is no more in use now.

Silver is one of the most romantic and sought after precious metals. In many cultures, silver is an auspicious gift. Silver’s superior properties make it a highly desirable industrial component. Silver has both industrial and decorative uses.

Since a long time, silver has been used to make exquisite jewellery and elegant tableware. The mirror in which you see your face every day is coated with silver. In ancient times, wealthy people had mirrors and many other everyday objects made of pure silver.

Silver is a very good conductor of electricity, so it is widely used in industry, especially in electronics where it is used for printed circuit boards and electrical contacts. It is also used as a catalyst and is important in the production of solar energy. Another fascinating aspect of silver is the use of silver iodide in fighting tropical storms.

Silver played an important role in the history of Argentina, a South American country at the bottom of the continent. The name Argentina comes from the Latin ‘argentum’, meaning silver. ‘Argentina’ therefore means the ‘land of silver’. But how did this country get its name? Let us take a look.

In the early 1500s, Spanish conquistadors had heard tales about a land ruled by a White King that was rich in silver. They set on a voyage up a river in search of this wealthy kingdom. They discovered a group of native Indians, who presented them with so many silver objects that the river was named ‘Rio de la Plata’ or Silver River. In time, the country itself was called La Plata which means ‘silver’ in Spanish. When the rule of Spain ended, the name was changed to Argentina, from the Latin word ‘argentum.’

In olden days, silver was used to make coins in many kingdoms. The practice of using silver coins slowly gained popularity. But silver was a rare metal. Later it was found out that the cost of silver used for making these coins was a lot higher than the value of these coins. But, there was a solution to this problem-add another element to silver!

            Finally, after a lot of experiments, it was found out that copper could be mixed with silver to make coins that looked like silver, which was much cheaper than the older practice. Since then, copper-silver alloy is used to make silver coins.

Today, if a silver coin is actually made of pure silver, the metal would cost more than 20 times the value of the coin. However coins of pure silver are still available. People buy them as an investment.

We have heard many stories of people drinking from silver cups and eating from a silver platter. While we use a glass or steel tumbler to drink water, many of our ancestors used tumblers made of silver. More than a practice that showed off wealth, this had something to do with hygiene. Silver has excellent anti-bacterial properties. It kills harmful bacteria in water. In fact, a few millionths of one gram, is enough to purify a litre of water! Our smart forefathers knew this, and that is why they used to store water in silver vessels, and drink from silver cups.

Even today, some people drop a few silver coins in their drinking water to purify it. Though we are sure about the anti-bacterial properties of silver, it is always safer to boil water before drinking it as there are so many germs today.

In our society, gold is seen as a symbol of wealth. Most of the gold that we see around us is in the form of jewellery and other artefacts. But gold has more desirable qualities than its beauty which makes it a valuable metal in the industry.

The properties of gold make it vital for the manufacture of components used in a wide range of electronic products including computers, telephones, cellular phones, and home appliances. Gold is used for shielding satellites and spacecraft from solar radiation because it is an excellent reflector of heat.

Gold is a vital element in medical research; it is even used in the direct treatment of arthritis and some other diseases. Gold is also widely used in dentistry; though getting a gold tooth to replace a natural one is rather expensive!

In some Asian countries, gold is used in food and drink, from fruit jelly to coffee. Some sweets are covered with gold leaf.

Picture Credit : Google