Silver Electrical Contacts

LOL! Loving all the comments! Water&Food, I don't know about stolen, more like disposed of.....because the way I understood my father in law was that, he immediately knew what they were but because they were not where they were supposed to be (ie labeled boxes or something of the sort) they could not use them for safety reasons and there were would have to dispose of them. My father in law, instead of throwing them away, grabbed them and gave them to me. And as Sulla alluded to, being the most senior guy there, I don't anyone that he was with would argue with him. LOL! Also, if I remember the story correctly, they were found in a vacant building that they were either getting ready to demolish or refurbish and it hadn't been occupied for some time.

My wife is taking them to work tomorrow to weigh them and I am thinking about taking one down to my local coin store to see if they could do a silver test on them. If they are pure silver as I suspect, that is a lot of silver. I will keep everyone posted.
 
silver is a higher conductor than copper if it was cost affective all electrical wiring would be silver but copper comes in second to silver, prob why these were used?
 
Jaceravone said:
I have tried doing an internet search for any info on these, but my father inlaw thinks that they were made specifically for the mine and were designed from specific specs. Therefore, I was trying to find the company that made these but did not have any luck.
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The company that made these is Cutler-Hammer. They look like just a grounding lug that goes inside a panel. I highly doubt they are solid silver. Probably aluminum alloy with silver plate. Hopefully for you I am wrong! :)
 
ironwood said:
Jaceravone said:
I have tried doing an internet search for any info on these, but my father inlaw thinks that they were made specifically for the mine and were designed from specific specs. Therefore, I was trying to find the company that made these but did not have any luck.
Click to expand...
The company that made these is Cutler-Hammer. They look like just a grounding lug that goes inside a panel. I highly doubt they are solid silver. Probably aluminum alloy with silver plate. Hopefully for you I am wrong! :)
Click to expand...

A quick google search wasn't much help. What would you recommend I do to find out the specifics about these? Anyone you would suggest I contact or call? Thanks for that info Ironwood!!! That is the break I had been looking for. We had suspected that the CH was the initials for the company but we didn't know which company. Thanks.
 
cut that sucker if its silver you will know, or buy some silver testing acid if its plated it will let you know, me i would cut and then acid test and if it is silver melt the whole lot and then get it assayed and stamped it would be worth it if it is silver if its not then nothing is lost.
 
Some quick densities as a reference:

Aluminum- 2.70 g/cubic cm
Copper- 8.96
Silver- 10.49
Lead- 11.36
Gold- 19.32

Some basic high school math will put you in the ball park. Also just noticed that as the name gets shorter the density goes up which I'm sure means absolutely nothing. Anyway, if those puppies are solid silver there's no way I'm melting them down.

I'd call Cutler Hammer and ask if they have any info on these.
 
They look aluminum to me but if they are very heavy as stated they probably are a silver alloy of some sort, if you can confirm the content and just need cash it would probably be worth getting them refined at UPMR or something , I think it is around a $85 refining fee + about 3%percent, or they make nice conversation pieces.
 
Jaceravone said:
ironwood said:
Jaceravone said:
I have tried doing an internet search for any info on these, but my father inlaw thinks that they were made specifically for the mine and were designed from specific specs. Therefore, I was trying to find the company that made these but did not have any luck.
Click to expand...
The company that made these is Cutler-Hammer. They look like just a grounding lug that goes inside a panel. I highly doubt they are solid silver. Probably aluminum alloy with silver plate. Hopefully for you I am wrong! :)
Click to expand...

A quick google search wasn't much help. What would you recommend I do to find out the specifics about these? Anyone you would suggest I contact or call? Thanks for that info Ironwood!!! That is the break I had been looking for. We had suspected that the CH was the initials for the company but we didn't know which company. Thanks.
Click to expand...
I actually searched for quite awhile for your item but had no luck. Don't know if the number is a catalog # or not but they may be an older production with an older number. Sorry I can't be more help. The first place I would call would be a local electrical supply parts house. At least that's where I would start. Good luck!
 
Well here is a small update, my in laws happen to stop by today and I was able to ask my father in law some more questions. If you notice where it says CU only 75 degrees C, well as suspected that means that this grounding block is only supposed to be used with Copper wiring. This was noted on a previous post. Also, the 75 degrees C (or 167 degrees F) is the max heat output that this grounding block can sustain. He also noted that these grounding blocks have 4,160 volts that go through them typically. When I asked him about the silver/aluminum combination, he wasn't sure, but like some other people that mentioned, the weight is not indicative for aluminum. He said that they would use solid gold if gold wasn't too expensive, but the next choice is solid silver. As for the % of silver he didn't know, but he thought it was 99.999% pure. The block is definitely oxidizing. There are even areas where it has turned green, but mostly it is just toned. Rubbing some silver cleaner on an area made it clean up really nicely. Well thats it for now, until tomorrow when I can get it weighed and hopefully tested at the local coin shop.
 
Thanks for the update , these are very interesting. If it oxidises green that would indicate copper , usually 999 silver does not have enough copper for it to oxidise green so I would guess it is slightly less than 999 with a copper alloy? keep us posted
 
I wonder if they are plated? a friend of mine's business used to plate electrical contacts for the local power company. They were all made of copper, all different shapes & sizes. They had a very heavy plating for conductivity etc & he often stripped the silver with nitric acid to replate/recycle them.
 
This is all very odd to me.
One, I've never before have come across a solid silver lug before (does not mean they do not exist).
Normally, lugs are silver/aluminum clad with a copper core.

The lugs were designed to accept copper wire with a temperature rating of 75 degrees(talking about the conductor here), sized between 2/0 and 300mcm (the holes are approximately the diameter of a quarter). They are CSA certified and manufactured by Cutler-Hammer.

They were constructed Oct. 2006, making that abandoned locker a fairly new one.

I highly doubt they are solid silver, although I'm not certain. Good luck
 
If I were to drill a hole directly through the block and test the shavings, this should yeild conclusive results right? So if there was a copper core, this would be exposed when I drilled a hole. Also, if this was silver plated aluminum, this would be exposed as well, right?
 
Jaceravone said:
If I were to drill a hole directly through the block and test the shavings, this should yeild conclusive results right? So if there was a copper core, this would be exposed when I drilled a hole. Also, if this was silver plated aluminum, this would be exposed as well, right?
Click to expand...

Just get a file and take some meet of it
 
Well gang, I have the answers everybody has been waiting for. Drumroll please.......

Anyway, my dreams of striking it rich have been dashed. Upon weighing the blocks, each block weighed 23.4 ounces not the 5lbs that I had originally thought. Secondly, and the most disappointing was that they were silver coated copper. :( Boo Hoo. Oh well. An acid test quickly revealed the copper core. I guess they will make nice paper weights. I guess I will just have to postpone that trip to the islands for another time! ;)
 
thanks for letting us know, bummer though but not to worry something else will present.

acid is good on something like these it will cut through any plating i have had something smilar only to find the copper dot after acid drop.

all is not lost copper is worth money too :)
 
I believe in the States you are very lucky, there are many old silver mines all over the US where you can fossick for native silver. Everyone is thinking gold when it comes to hobby prospecting. Silver is a different & quite plentiful in some areas.

658_silver03.jpg
 
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