3 ms·
Gold? That soft, malleable metal? Forever? Sure, gold is somewhat resistant to chemical corrotion from just being left alone in a normal environment.. But how d
by dusted 5y ago
Gold? That soft, malleable metal? Forever?
Sure, gold is somewhat resistant to chemical corrotion from just being left alone in a normal environment.. But how does it stand up to scratching, beating, bending and a forest fire ?
- meepmorp 5y agoScrolling down a bit brings one to a paragraph beginning, "The Totenpass is built from solid gold and nickel," which makes it sound like it might be an alloy.
- dusted 5y agoyes, but it's never going to be a particularly strong one, this smells like they're mainly pushing gold because people tend to think of it as the pinnacle, magic material. Sure, it has very nice properties, but I fail to see long-term data storage as one of them.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y agoNot up on my metallurgy, but I seem to recall that platinum has many of the same electrical and chemical advantages of gold. I think a few of the rare earth metals may also be better. Gold is actually cheaper than a lot of these metals.
- vr46 5y agoSilver-based photographs have lasted over a hundred years (as have actual books) so I think we're probably ok for archival media. There was a process I knew of years ago that replaced the silver in photos with gold or other metals, so that ought to nail it.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y agoFolks in the UK may remember this fiasco: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago> There was a process I knew of years ago that replaced the silver in photos with gold This process? https://science.howstuffworks.com/alchemy-to-chemistry.htm https://science.howstuffworks.com/alchemy-to-chemistry.htm
- vr46 5y agoLOL, no, more like using this: https://tetenal.com/pdf/pi/101126e.pdf https://tetenal.com/pdf/pi/101126e.pdf
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y agoThanks! TIL
- wnkrshm 5y agoI've failed to find a nickel gold alloy with such a small amount of gold ("0.4g" according to the website) that still looks gold/yellow - 'white gold' which is a gold-nickel-palladium alloy has a magnitude more gold in it than that and nonetheless looks silvery. I suspect this is a coated surface, with the coating being easily vaporized by a 405nm pulsed laser.
- throwanem 5y agoWith the prices they're charging, $50 for the small one and $75 for the large, it has to be a coating, and a thin one at that.