 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: beejay
Date: 2001-05-29 08:24
I just read in an ancient (1924) book of household tips that belonged to my grand-mother that a small piece of camphor in a container will prevent silver from tarnishing. For those of us who cannot find 3M strips, is this a good idea to keep silver-plated clarinets looking shiny? Why should camphor have an effect on silver anyway?
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Author: Jason
Date: 2001-05-29 08:48
Don't let the camphor touch the silver...
I beleive that the camphor reacts strongly with the sulfur compounds that cause silver tarnish, and neutralizes them.
J
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Author: Stefano
Date: 2001-05-29 12:15
Camphor may be good to keep silver-plated keys shiny, but what about the wood? I'm afraid that it will absorb the camphor smell too much.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-05-29 14:56
My dictionary tells me that camphor is naturally occuring [in camphor tree bark] C10H16O, a white, volatile, translucent crystalline compound [doesn't give its structure, will look it up] with pungent odor. I have found it in a "lip balm" tube along with lanolin etc. It apparently has chemical structure which absorbs [reacts with?] SO2 [sulfur dioxide] and likely H2S [hydrogen sulfide] in the air. It and prob. similar compounds may be used in the "tarnish strips" for silver and copper protection. Interested!?, Don
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Author: beejay
Date: 2001-05-29 16:39
I actually like the smell of camphor. I was thinking of putting a piece in a film canister with a couple of tiny holes in the top. I believe camphor consists primarily of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen plus aromates, so I cannot on the face of it see anything counterproductive. The amount of sulphur compounds in city air is quite high, and causes slight but nonetheless perceptible tarnishing.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-05-29 17:56
Beejay -
You can get the 3M strips at any jewelry or household utensils store and most hardware stores. Camphor's too strong smelling for me, though I suppose it would cover up mustiness.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Bart Hendrix
Date: 2001-05-29 18:28
Beejay:
Just because camphor "consists primarily of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen", don't assume it is harmless. It may not tarnish silver, but it does have some interesting properties and uses.
"Evolves flammable and explosive vapors. . . .
Tolerance, 2mg per cubic meter of air. . . .
Medicine (internal and external); plasticizer for cellulose nitrate, other explosives and lacquers; insecticides, moth and mildew preventives; tooth powders; flavoring; embalming; pyrotechnics. . . ."*
In small amounts it may be useful, but added to a case in its pure, crystalline form I suspect there is a reasonable chance for interaction with the wood (it is a ketone).
*"The Condensed Chemical Dictionary", Van Nostrand Reinhold
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Author: Bart Hendrix
Date: 2001-05-29 18:41
continued....
My grandmother had a book that suggested carbontetrachloride for household cleaning. I don't think I would do that, either.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-05-29 21:26
Thanx, Bart, you saved me a trip IN the library, [to find what you have found], I run our used book store! My Ch-Phys HBs didnt give much help, so its a ketone! Being of natural [and synthetic] origins its prob. a mixture, volatile and flammable, wouldn't recommend it for clar use. Will have to find what the tarnish strips contain now!! Don
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Author: beejay
Date: 2001-05-29 21:33
Unfortunartely, I can't find those darned 3m strips in Europe, and I must have asked in a couple of dozen places.
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Author: Nick Conner
Date: 2001-05-29 22:14
I'm enrolled in AP Chemistry class, and carbon tetrachloride causes brain damage. It's serious stuff, but it's a joke in our class. "Back in the day," says our teacher, a relic himself, "the students would use it for a lab, and then the teachers would wonder why the students were so stupid." Turns out that the "safe" carbon compound wasn't so harmless, after all.
Nick Conner
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Author: mw
Date: 2001-05-30 00:12
Not too long ago I posted a name & number for a company in Florida that sells eight (8) of the 3M Strips for $8 with free shipping. I have reloaded once already. Greta deal, great company --- they take credit cards, they ship in protected packaging in a timely fashion. Do a SEARCH of the BB if interested.
Best,
mw
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Author: Bart Hendrix
Date: 2001-05-30 02:31
Nick:
As a "relic" and teacher of such a class myself, that's exactly my point. Our standing joke is that I am "wierd" because I used to play with mercury every chance I got.
The teacher I replaced (when she retired) had what she considered to be a harmless supply of picric acid in the stockroom. It had been there for many many years with no problem and had become nearly anhydrous. When the local fire department learned of it, they shut the school down, sent the students home and called in the bomb squad to get rid of it.
We have learned many things that were considered harmless years ago are really anything but.
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Author: willie
Date: 2001-05-30 04:46
The camphor smell and oil is mostly in the leaves. My mom used to rub some crushed leaves on my chest when I congestion and bad coughs. Worked faster and better than just about anything from the store and it was free (big tree in front yard). Native Americans have used this for centuries.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-05-30 17:08
After discussing camphor with a number of skilled chemists [who really didn't know much about it "off the top of the head"] and then struggling to find structural formulae, we concluded that it wouldn't be at all effective in sulfur removal, [just by normal solubility] unless the C=O ketone group or possible ring unsaturation [related to the terpenes?] were chem-reactive! 'Nuff said? Don
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