Colloidal Silver Research
Bob Berger - Deceased June 21, 2006

Welcome to our Bob Berger Tribute Page, which includes an archived copy of his old website. We've included this to preserve his methods, research, and data so that the public may continue to learn from his experience.

A Message from "OLE BOB"

In my eighty years, I have been "around the block" a time or two, and in the process I acquired a Bachelor's of Science degree from the University of Illinois in 1947, with a major in Electronics and a minor in Power. In my journey I have obtained a license as a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Missouri, and four US Letters patents. Three of the patents are for electronic products and one is for a pseudo integrated circuit to replace radio tubes in situ.

Uncle Sam gave me a three-year vacation in Europe from 1944 to 1947 as a Lieutenant in the Signal Corps, in General Patton's third army. From 1948 to 1957 I was in La Ceiba, Honduras, the Chief Engineer of Standard Fruit's Honduras division. Then followed a 26-year stint with Western Electric, in their electronic division. My final status was Senior Staff Engineer, one of only 75 in the entire AT&T, Bell, and W.E. companies.

After retirement I designed a block down satellite television receiver using thick film replaceable modules for Signal Systems and an "over the road" tire pressuring monitoring system for eighteen wheelers for Tire Track. an FAA approved patch for the cargo bays of commercial airliners, and an FAA approved high temperature material that will with stand a 2000 degree flame for 15 minutes for use in the air handling systems of military and commercial aircraft.

During the last five years I have researched many protocols for making aqueous silver products, that were discussed on several chatrooms. The first one was at the University of Nebraska, but it folded in 1998. Then along came Mike Devour with the [email protected] This was a very active list with everyone doing "his own thing." This haphazard approach caused me to acquire a spectrophotometer, a conductivity meter, and a digital pH meter. As each person reported their "own" CS results, I would duplicate their set-up and then tell them what they really had.

When I suggested that some form of standardization be introduced, the ridicule began. So a search for the truth was initiated, and I have logged data and plotted dozens of protocols, and have hundreds of pages of data for the low voltage direct current (LVDC CS) process for those interested. From my work, I reported on the advantages of continual stirring and the use of polarity switching to reduce the agglomeration of silver ions and to increase the ratio of ionic silver (Ag+) to particles (Ag0). These processes have been incorporated into many of the commercially available LVDC generators. There has been sufficient literature developed to establish that the healing factor of silver is the ionic state.

The generic term of "colloidal silver" should be clarified, as a product with more than 50% ions should be called a "solution," and product with more than 50% colloids (particles) should be called "colloidal silver."

The interest in high voltage alternating current HVAC methods of making an aqueous silver product became intense in 1998. So I investigated three major areas for making an HVAC silver product. This investigation looked at electrode spacing, wet area, gas ambient, arc gaps length, and supply voltages for 12 kv to 15 kv, and currents of 30 ma., 60 ma., 90 ma., and 120 ma. using several brands of neon sign transformers. Much of this data is available as it has been plotted using the Wplot32.exe program.

I would enjoy exchanging technical data with regard to manufacturing and testing methods.

Due to the proliferation of silver-bearing products on the market, some form of standardized labeling should be incorporated so that the buyer will know whether the product is an electro-silver process or of a chemical silver source.

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Below are "quick links" to the sections of Bob's old website.

LVDC ( Low Voltage Direct Current )
Constant Current
HVDC Colloidal Silver
HVAC ARC NST Comparison
HVAC Colloidal Silver
Initial Conductance
Distilled Water
Ole' Bob's EZCS2 CS Generator
Polarity Switch

Bob's Original Home Page Text

Welcome! To the web site that will attempt to separate fiction from fact about Silver Solutions and the methods for making them. So says "Ole Bob."

There is much misinformation about what is commonly called Colloidal Silver as to what is a good product verses a bad product and the various methods of making and evaluating them.

To understand the processes and techniques for making silver solutions, the following facilities were procured to expedite the learning curve: variable wave length spectrophotometer, conductivity meter, digital pH meter, and the required standards for measuring silver ions (Ag+), nitrate ions (NO3) and nitrite ions (NO2).

Two and a half years were spent evaluating many low voltage direct current LVDC CS protocols for making colloidal silver, including the 3 Battery CS. The investigations included spacings, wet surface area, stirring, polarity reversal for constant voltage systems and some constant current systems. This investigation also included some high volage DC CS, HVDC CS, CONSTANT CURRENT, INITIAL CONDUCTANCE,EZCS gen.

Well over two hundred protocols were evaluated and the results were data logged and plotted. The work then shifted to the high voltage alternating current systems. In the HVAC realm three basic protocols were evaluated, but only item 3 was seriously evaluated as runs made with items 1 & 2 had color and drop-out problems. Test were made to compare two different brands of NST HVAC ARC:

1. Both electrodes immersed in the distilled water (DW) as in the LVDC protocols,

2. One electrode immersed in DW and the other suspended about 1/8" to 1/4" above the DW surface. This is the "cone" method, as water cones up around the air insulated electrode when voltage is applied, and it producess a high level of ionic silver with a bright T.E.

3. HVAC ARC has one immersed electrode and one sufficiently above the DW surface to form an arc in the gaseous region above the water. This method produces Silver Solutionsas shown in the T.E.M.

Due to the high cost FDA approval and the ease of making a reasonable silver product, no one has undertaken an acceptable study to evaluate the well-know benefits of silver and define its characteristics. Many of the products on the market are not sufficiently labeled so that an astute buyer to evaluate is composition. If the product label reads "10 PPM", is the product 95% colloids or 95% ions, or somewhere in between these extremes, and how was it measured, and manufactured? There are three basic methods of determining the silver content of a liquid product and they are; atomic adsorption, which measures total silver; the Ion Specific Electrode (ISE) and the spectrophotometer measure the ionic content. Some venders of commercial colloidal silver generators use a Pure Water Tester (PWT) which measures conductivity, and not the silver directly. Those measurements may or may not relate to the ionic content, as many factors such as water grade, cleanliness, and temperaure can affect this type of measurement.

I do not sell any type of equipment, but I do supply a service to those who brew their own CS by measuring the silver concentration of their products. Therefore I will attempt to throw light on these subjects so that the uninitiated can discern the truth about colloidal silver and silver solutions. The amazing fact is that ALL forms of electro-silver products have some degree of efficacy. By no means is this an exhaustive presentation of the subject, as more data is developed this site will be updated. The latest page is generator design for those new in making CS. cs_gen_design. 11/7/02.

For those who are interested in polarity switching a new page has been added polarity_switch using one 555.

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Ole Bob on LVDC

Contrary to popular opinion I have found no evidence to support the theory that a constant voltage system for making colloidal silver will exhibit what has been termed "run-away" of cell current.

What actually happens is that the silver ions begin the process of agglomeration. This can be verified by observing the data plot below for a 26 volt constant voltage system.

Please notice that at the 90 minute data point the cell current and the conductance break over to the right. It then flattens out and finally starts reducing both the cell current and the conductivity of the solution. [ Bob had data plots to prove his points, but the images have been lost ]

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Constant Current Colloidal Silver Data Plot

[ Plot not available ]

Contrary to popular opinion I have found no evidence to support the theory that a constant voltage
system for making colloidal silver will exhibit what has been termed "run-away" of cell current.

What actually happens is that the silver ions begin the process of agglomeration. This can be verified by observing the data plot below for a 26 volt constant voltage system.

Please notice that at the 90 minute data point the cell current and the conductance break over to the right. It then flattens out and finally starts reducing both the cell current and the conductivity of the solution.

It becomes obvious that both constant current and constant voltage generation of a silver product are subject to agglomeration of silver ions, so some form of cell control is required to limit this process. For manual control a constant voltage is easier to handle as one can monitor the cell current and shut down the system when the current level reaches a level of 1 ma./sq.in. of wet electrode.

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HVDC Colloidal Silver ( High Voltage Direct Current )

[ Data Plots not Available ]

The investigation into high voltage direct current HVDC involved a total of thirteen extended time runs. Eleven runs were made with 330 v dc on the electrodes, and two extended time runs were made with 27 volts on the electrodes.

In no case was there a current "run-away" condition found. As with the LVDC CS generation agglomeration set in and reduced the final current values to about one third of the maximum current encountered during the process.

This work was performed before the acquisition of a spectrophotometer, hence no Ag+ concentration values available.

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HVAC ARC NST Comparison

The question arose as to the relative effectiveness of several different manufacturer's Neon
Sign Tramsformers (NST) for making a high voltage silver product. Two 15 kv 60 ma. NST's
were availalbe, one made by Jefferson and the other by Franceformer, each carried
the same name plate electrical specifications.

The test set up consisted of a current transformer in the wet electrode lead and a voltage
divider network was connected across the two terminals of the two gallon brew cell.
A tap was placed on the end of the resistor network near the current transformer.

The current transformer readout is in AC ma. and the voltmeter connected across the tap
was calibrated to read the actual cell voltage.

While there are differences in the voltages, end product is basically the same.

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HVAC Colloidal Silver

HVAC

[ TEM's referenced are currently not available ]

There are three generally accepted methods for making high voltage alternating current silver solutions;

1. Using two immersed or wet electrodes as in the LVDC process. My personal experience with this process was not satisfactory in that the PPM limit was about 9 part per million and the CS has a tendency to turn yellow as agglomeration set in, and drop-out occurred.

2. Using one immersed or wet electrode and the other being positioned slightly above the surface of the distilled water. In this manner when the high voltage was applied the water would cone up around the electrode. Hence the name "cone method." It produces CS very quickly but it has a rather strong T.E. indicating considerable particulate material.

3. Using on immersed or wet electrode and the other positioned about 3/8" above the water surface for a 12 kv NST (1/8" gap per 4 kv). Upon application of the high voltage an arc would develop between the water surface and the electrode, hence the name "HVAC ARC." The color of the arc is derived from the gas ambient in the head space of the brew cell. Air gives a reddish color to the arc and a CO2 gas ambient gives a blue color.

HVAC ARC CO2 Method

Advantages:

Silver solutions make under the proper conditions may have a T.E. that can hardly be seen in a very dark room. Material of this type will have an ionic content of 95% or better.

The author's 12 kv 30 ma. process makes silver solutions that measure 98%+ silver ions as checked by two independent AA labs. The Transmission Electron Microscope (T.E.M.) photograph is available at HVAC TEM. This material is extremely stable as it has been outdoors for one winter where it froze and thawed several times while sitting in full sunlight without fallout or change in concentration.

The concentration of silver ions is time dependent i.e. the longer the brew the higher the PPM. However all is not "roses" as I have seen a few runs of three hours that measured 66 PPM, but they were not stable with time, as agglomeration set-in. Originally they had a weak tyndall effect (T.E.) that was laser beam width and visible in ordinary room light. There appears to be an unknown "gremlin" in this process, and work is under way to isolate it.

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Initial Conductance

The concentration of silver ions in an aqueous silver solution is a function of time and current in the brew
cell. The initial current level and the subsequent rise in current value with time in the brew cell is controlled
by the impurities in the distilled water and the increase in silver ions.

The following data plot shows the effects of initial conductance expressed as the initial cell current at
start of the brew operation for two different suppliers of distilled water.

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Distilled Water

The following is not meant to be a technical dissertation of the manufacture of distilled water but rather is provided so that those who are making their own colloidal silver will understand why it is desirable to find the best grade of DW that is available in you area.

When I acquired my spectrophotometer there was a high school level tutorial on testing of distilled water. The item that caught my eye was the statement that some DW's have a undesirable content of copper in them. So I thought it pertinent to review some of the background on steam distillation of water.

It is well known that pure water is called the universal solvent, and steam is even more aggressive in its attack on materials. Many of the early distillation systems used copper for the boilers and the condensing coils because of its ease in fabrication. Unfortunately copper is attacked very vigorously by steam so there will be copper ions included in the distilled water.

With the advent of stainless steel some stills converted their condensing coils to it. While this eliminated the copper ions they were substituted by nickel ions. With the development of surgical grade this problem was greatly reduced.

However the preferred material for the condensing coils is a hard glass such as Pyrex or Nomex. These two laboratory grade glasses are basically immune to the leaching problem.

What is not generally recognized is that the nitrogen in the air is absorbed very easily into water, and to remove it during distillation requires special techniques that ar not normally used.

At sea level and standard conditions (14.7 psia) water boils at 212 deg. F. At .10 atmosphere (1.47 psia) water boils at 115 deg. F.,so it becomes obvious that by careful design and fabrication a very high grade of DW can be made through the use of a reduced temperature and pressure system. There are expensive to make and difficult to operate.

The effects of the initial conductance of the DW on the CS process can be seen on page Initial Conductance which compares two different DW's with inital conductances represented by initial currents of 0.3 ma. and 1.36 ma

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EZCS2 Colloidal Silver Generator

In the early months of 1999 work was begun on a constant voltage polarity switching generator. A few were sold then up-graded to a EZCS2 that had constant stirring.

An assembled and exploded photograph of the unit is shown below.

The two LEDs at the far right indicated switching. The two red or black jacks provided current measuring
during brew. The stir motor power supply was external, operating at about 0.9 volts.

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Polarity Switch

Polarity Switch with 555 Timer

With R1 = 30 kohms and R2 = 820 kohms with C1 = 100 mfd electrolytic capacitor the ON/OFF intervals
are equal to 60 seconds. To vary the equal ON/OFF times, only change R2

T1 = .693(R1+R2)C1
T2 = .693(R2)C1 Period (sec) = (R1+2R2)C1/1.44

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