Re: New bottle cap idea

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Hollmike-at-aol-dot-com>
> 
> Hi all,
>   Well, there is one way I know of to achieve a 'perfect' metal coating
on the
> surface of glass.  I have done this to the inside of a polyethylene
bottle even
> with acceptable results.   It is the age old mirroring process that has been
> used for more  years than I could tell you.  It goes back at least to the
13th
> edition of the Hanbook of Chemistry and Physics(CRC) and probably many years
> before that.

Problems:

1. The coating will be far, far too thin to be usable.  You need at
least several mils and are lucky to get even a few microns, with
corresponding high resistance and low thermal capacity.

2. Even you got the silver deposited OK you would still have the problem
of making a connection to it of sufficiently large area to handle the
high peak currents.

3. You stand a good chance of a major explosion!!!  In the process you
can get silver fulminate, an excellent percussion explosive.  My cousin
(a post-doc chemistry major at Caltech), helped me silver my first
telescope mirror back in the late forties.  We thought we disposed of
all of the residue safely, but the next day had an explosion when he
dropped a beaker on the bench and hit the sponge with which the sink was
cleaned.  No eyes lost, fortunately...... 

Good luck,

Ed