Measuring PPM

Current Situation:

Reliable ways of measuring CS PPM do not exist today. We need a cheap way to do this. I have checked out a hand held meter used for determining the PPM of minerals, and salts in water used by the water filter industry. Results did not work well enough to use. Readings were way too low. The visual method of passing a laser through the solution and estimating the PPM is subject to too much judgment error. This method is useful to give overall ball park estimate to the trained eye in a pinch. However, if we are seriously going to use Colloidal silver then we need to know how strong a batch we have just made. Then, adjust our dosage amounts accordingly.

 

Proposed solution:

Hand held battery operated laser pointers are cheap today. I have seen them between $10-20. If one shines this laser through a glass or plastic container of some width say 4" or more wide. With Colloidal particles stopping and/or reflecting the light in all directions, one will notice that the amount of light coming out the other side is roughly inversely proportional to the amount of silver in solution. The more the silver the less amount of light gets through.

 

Now put a cheap photo-voltaic cell (say from radio shack) on the opposite side to measure the amount of light. The photo-voltaic cell is then hooked to a cheap current meter (or multi-meter if that is what you have). Vole - we have a setup that quantitatively measures amount of silver in solution. This unit will need calibration. This can be done by sending off 1-3 or more samples of silver ranging in density from high to low to one of the recognized testing labs. A graph plot of current ver PPM can be drawn. In this way the reading of the meter can be mapped to a more accurate PPM estimate. One reads the meter looks it up on the graph and reads off the PPM.

 

Now the most costly part of all this is the testing lab fees. If we individually all do this we will have spent a fortune. I recommend that one or more of our list members that sells CS or knows electronics volunteer for the development/refinement of this colloidal silver PPM meter. Post the results of how to build it. Sell the result to those who wish to get a fully calibrated unit and don't have the time or expertise to build it. If one decides to commercialize this unit. I recommend supplying one or more stable test solutions (not CS) that attenuate the light the same as some given PPM of colloidal silver. This would be used to check the calibration on into the future. This could also be sold separately or with the unit.

 

The commercialized unit that I currently visualize would enclose the sample in the dark once a lid is closed. I am mocking up a clear plastic tray about 4"-6" wide that is 1/4" to 1/2" deep (from front to back) and maybe 1" high that only needs to be filled 1/2 way up with colloidal solution. The beam comes in from the right end and the photo-voltaic sensor is on the left with the meter in front. The unit is in operation once the existing button on the laser pointer is pushed. If the calibration holds well over time then the commercial version could have a PPM scale printed as part of the meter scale. I believe this to be a new idea. I have not seen such units for sale. Do we have anyone interested enough to start to work on it? The technology level needed is not high tech.

Mike