Old tv silver wires ?

Hi everyone!
I opened up some old tv's and found a silver wire going around the back of each one weighs about 10 grams per tv
Just wanted to check with you guys if 1. is this realy silver? 2. if so, how can i find out its purety grade? can you estimate it?

a poor quality pic:




Thanks a lot!

 

I'm no expert on this, but I would doubt it's anywhere near pure silver. Consider that 10g (forget about composition, let's be generous and assume it's pure) is a fraction less than 1/3 of an ounce, and let's assume spot price of $42 (which it isn't quite yet).

$42.00 divide 3 = $14.00.

Now, I'm no expert, but I'm not a dummy either... getting this stuff assayed is likely to cost more than $14.00 alone. Add to that the fact that CRT type TV's are going the way of the dodo... you won't find many left.

And - and this is deadly serious - it is NOT safe to be mucking about at the back of any CRT tube if you don't know what you're doing and have proper safety gear on. When they explode, you're going to know about it, and may pick up some very severe and permanent injuries from it.

These are the reasons why we all say "Silver is used in such small quantities industrially to make it non economical to recover".

Sorry, I personally do not think you've hit the jackpot here

 

If that was gold on the other hand.

Buy as many old TVs as you possibly can!

 

looks a lot like an earth line/wire?

Which is, in most cases, just copper coated in tin

 

Why not refine the wire to pure 999 silver
Then you will find out exactly how much silver it contains.

TV tubes have a partial vacuum inside.
They don't explode they implode.

 

Silver is usually used in high-frequency coaxial wires, for maximizing the skin effect, reducing losses, and aiding the application of teflon (insulator).

For this reason, silver is usually applied to the surface of conductors (reflectors). (silver is plated onto copper etc).

there aint much silver there...

 

Correct.

The danger lies in all the glass imploding, hitting other pieces, then bouncing off (outward).

I've seen it happen once in a very controlled environment... I would not want to be anywhere near one "out in the wild" so to speak.

 

This ANARCHIST did it when I was a kid ,I pushed 1 over an 8ft wall

 

When the air gets let into the tube and hits the phosphourous...it can be exciting

 

I thought there was capacitors in there that could still carry a charge (a big jolt) even after being unplugged for a while? Not sure if this is right though, just something I remember an engineer mate saying once when I went to grab an old tv board.

 

^^^^
That is true...a nasty jolt...enough to hurt your heart.
A mate I had used to repair appliances he found at the dump...but stood well clear of old TV's for this reason (and Microwave Ovens!)

 

When I was younger I shot rocks from my slingshot at an old TV a few times.
The glass is really tough and didnt break at all.

 

We had this brick room outdoors with no roof for rubbish bins,one day somebody put a TV in the bin room
Little old me thought if you put it on the top of the wall & tip it to the other side it would be safer.
But what I've really wanted to do was
Throw 1 out of a window in a hotel while still plugged in with an extension lead :lol: :lol:

But while in Brisbane in 1986 with the inter state athletic meet,we threw everything from the roof of the hotel
Full coke cans,bins full of water out the window
If we hit anybody I'm sorry

 

Throwing a brick into a TV can be fun - I did that at erm... 15 I think.

Joking aside though - the dormant power in the capacitors can be very very dangerous...

 

Just press the TV power button once it is unplugged, shouldn't that dissipate the left over charge?

 

No it can take 24 hours to discharge the majority of the power ,but there will always be some power stored in the components
Well maybe not after a year or 2