In Cecil’s article (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/080314.html) he seems to miss out one great use for colloidal silver - painting the “silver screen”. Good old screen silver was colloidal silver in nitrocellulose with some solvent I forget (hey, it’s been over 10 years since I’ve last seen the stuff). The silver made those old polarized 3D movies possible; the usual powder coating found on many modern screens would depolarize the projection and make such 3D movies impossible. Of course these days you get to wear goggles which are about the size and weight of a taxi - but they have LCD shutters controlled by infrared signals, so you don’t need an expensive silver screen (or any screen with a metallic surface for that matter). Just a bit of ancient history on real uses for colloidal silver.
Thanks! When I saw the thread title, and that it was posted by a Guest, my first thought was that we were being treated to one of the crackpot diatribes that occasionally show up in response to a fact-based column. Instead, an interesting piece of history for us cinema buffs. I thought “silver screen” was just a flamboyant expression.