03-15-2009, 09:51 PM
a post in the wahl thread made me remember that i posted a researched ( as i couldn't find and hard facts in the controversy)thread in a brass rail versus nickle sliver in the old forum so here it is whit some updated info this is not to start a argument i hope just some facts. .
After this thread started I did a lot of research on the properties of both brass and nickel silver also known as German silver and come up with a ton of information so I tried to keep it as short as I could. But first the chemical composition of brass is copper and zinc the commonest alloy is 63% copper and 37% zinc nickel silver is copper zinc and nickel the common alloy is 65% copper 18% nickel and 17% zinc the conductivity of each base metal using silver as a rating of 100 copper comes in with a rating of 97.61 zinc at 29.57 nickel at 12.98 so it would stand to reason that nickel silver rail is not as good of a conductor as brass rail but we use such short runs of it that re stance is not factor.now as for the oxides the major component being copper in both brass and nickel silver the common black oxide we get on our track is called cupric oxide its conductive qualities I didn’t find a site that dealt with it(fore all the years of shuddering locos we all can guess on it), but did find that it is a toxic substance(new to me).nickel oxide is also black but being only 18% of the metal in the alloy that it will be found in smaller amounts (which is a good thing as it carries a cancer warning) as to the conductivity qualities if the base metal in of low conductivity of the oxide would stand to reason to be also lower. The zinc oxide is a whitish gray color is not toxic and harmless unless you ingest large amounts of it, but the fumes of zinc are deadly if breathed in confined spaces. The oxides from all three of these metals are used in the electronic industry from what I found mostly in the integrated circuit manufacturing. Also there I a myriad of other compounds that can be formed the such as sulfides which form in locations having sulfur compound fumes in the air .so from all I can find the only advantage to nickel silver track over brass is the appearance and that is why I only buy new track in nickel silver but use brass I have.
update information on this, the first solid state rectifiers were copper oxide, so the black copper oxide on our rails is a rectifier more or less
After this thread started I did a lot of research on the properties of both brass and nickel silver also known as German silver and come up with a ton of information so I tried to keep it as short as I could. But first the chemical composition of brass is copper and zinc the commonest alloy is 63% copper and 37% zinc nickel silver is copper zinc and nickel the common alloy is 65% copper 18% nickel and 17% zinc the conductivity of each base metal using silver as a rating of 100 copper comes in with a rating of 97.61 zinc at 29.57 nickel at 12.98 so it would stand to reason that nickel silver rail is not as good of a conductor as brass rail but we use such short runs of it that re stance is not factor.now as for the oxides the major component being copper in both brass and nickel silver the common black oxide we get on our track is called cupric oxide its conductive qualities I didn’t find a site that dealt with it(fore all the years of shuddering locos we all can guess on it), but did find that it is a toxic substance(new to me).nickel oxide is also black but being only 18% of the metal in the alloy that it will be found in smaller amounts (which is a good thing as it carries a cancer warning) as to the conductivity qualities if the base metal in of low conductivity of the oxide would stand to reason to be also lower. The zinc oxide is a whitish gray color is not toxic and harmless unless you ingest large amounts of it, but the fumes of zinc are deadly if breathed in confined spaces. The oxides from all three of these metals are used in the electronic industry from what I found mostly in the integrated circuit manufacturing. Also there I a myriad of other compounds that can be formed the such as sulfides which form in locations having sulfur compound fumes in the air .so from all I can find the only advantage to nickel silver track over brass is the appearance and that is why I only buy new track in nickel silver but use brass I have.
update information on this, the first solid state rectifiers were copper oxide, so the black copper oxide on our rails is a rectifier more or less