The author is neither confused nor wrong. Silver coatings are usually done in electrolytes containing an whole array of cyanides. Presumably, no cyanide ends up in the silverware - but again it might, if someone is doing it in his garage.
And yes, it can be sulfur (most likely it is - because people tasting natural gas have often complain it to taste like garlic). But really, to have the taste of garlic, you need some pretty strong bacteria growing on it. Maybe it is the H2S from the braces.
The other source of phosphorus (if indeed it is phosphorus) maybe from pesticides or things like that. Like the germicide used in pets could have contained that. Maybe the silverware was put in a display kinda thing and some pesticide was put on it to keep bugs away - i am just guessing.
From the feel of it - if I can avoid using that silverware, I would.
I can understand how electroplating works to deposit silver on a metal surface so it won’t easily come off during normal washing.
Can someone explain to me how electroplating works to deposit cyanide on a metal surface so it won’t come off during normal washing but will come off in the mouth?
Natural gas is odorless. How your gas smells depends on what your gas company puts in it to make it smell (e.g., mercaptan and thiophane) so whether or not it smells like garlic depends not only on your sense of smell but also on your gas company.
Silver doesn’t react readily with many things (after all, that’s the point of using silver). In the house, the most likely reaction is the conversion of a minute amount of silver to silver sulfide. Others have suggested that this reaction may be reversed in the presence of yoghurt to release H2S which is almost always described as the odor of rotten eggs, not of garlic. I have never heard of removing tarnish from silverware by treating it with yoghurt and I have never heard of detectable H2S being released when silver is cleaned.
Is it possible that you have been storing the silver near anything unusual or has anyone possibly tried to clean the silverware with anything inappropriate (e.g., some products for treating guns contain selenium which can produce a garlic odor).
You mention that this is real silver, “heirloom type.” Is it from a reputable manufacturer? Is it possible that it is a cheap, third-world immitation made of reclaimed photoprocessing chemicals, dental amalgam, or something else that could be contaminated?
By now, you have undoubtedly taken ftg’s advice and removed the tarnish from your silver. Did that fix the problem?
That must be a typo ? You mean methane is odorless - right ? Natural gas most of the time has H2S in it which gives the characteristic smell/taste. And Natural gas also can be forming at home or in the drain with anything rotting.
I agree mercaptans are added to the NG used for domestic fuels for giving it the characteristic odor. But that is done much after sweetening the gas.
I suspect that you are using a definition of the term “natural gas” that differs from the definition everyone else uses. For example, the standard term for gases the form in waste lines is “sewer gas” (famous for its H2S content), not “natural gas.”
Yeah - all your cites are natural gas for domestic consumers. This is not raw natural gas but processed natural gas. The natural gas that comes out of wells always contain a certain amount of H2S, Nitrogen, CO2, Helium, etc. etc. Also, hydrocarbons higher than Methane are presents in wet gas. More Here
OK, so my guess was correct, you are not using the term natural gas the same way the gas companies, the DOE and everybody else does. Natural gas, as the world knows it, is a refined and odorless product derived from a smelly mixture of stuff that comes out of a hole in the ground.
Nope, still wrong. Natural gas, as the world knows it, is a product that’s spiked with a smelly substance, after the chemical engineers and gas companies remove all the other smelly substances from the unrefined natural gas. Just cuz folks is ignorant doesn’t mean they have a right to decide how experts use the language.