At a local restaurant the other day, we noticed that some of the silverware we were given was magnetic. The strength seemed to vary from piece to piece, with some being strong enough to pick up other pieces and some not being attractive at all.
Is the magnetism by design, or does it arise through some natural process? The magnetism seemed to be haphazard enough that it couldn’t have been that way on purpose, but I can’t think of how it would just happen on its own.
Thanks,
Uzd4ce
You realize that this isn’t generally “silverware” as opposed to other metals don’t you? The vast majority of restaurants do not use utensils made of silver. The magnetic quality certainly isn’t by design because most restaurants do not expect customers to bring refrigerator magnets to adorn their forks. It is because the utensils are made out of cheaper material and may have a higher iron content other other metals.
The magnetism probably derives from the natural process of dropping the silverware in a magnetic field. Here’s a description of how to make a magnet by tapping a railroad spike with a hammer. The magnetic field use in the cite is the Earth’s own, but the electrical devices found in modern kitchens could also supply a field to magnetize your silverware.
When British Airways used to have it’s own catering centre next to Heathrow Airport, they had a machine which separated cutlery from the mixture of food waste and disposable plastic trays using a big electromagnet on a conveyor belt. Presumably this would have magnetised it. I can’t imagine many restaurants needing such machines though.
The OP clearly means that the utensils have, to varying degrees, the properties of a magnet. ie; you can lift a paperclip off the table with your soup spoon.
It is very strange. Maybe the restaurant goes in for quackery and uses one of those crackpot “Dishwasher Magnetizer Balls” that are supposed to magically make the water cleaner and save you money on detergent just by being in the machine – if those things even have any magnetic properties and their dishwasher has a rotating tray.
Otherwise… WTF? How does cutlery get magnetized in the normal course of operations?
:smack: Of course.
Maybe an inductive heating element in a dishwasher with a carousel tray?
I’ve certainly noticed this too - some pieces are strongly magnetised enough that the knives will actually spin round and stick to one another if you place them side-by-side on the table. Never really thought about how it happens, but I suppose the dishwasher could be the answer…
At both of the restaurants I’ve worked, there is a magnet part on the trash can that is used to prevent utensils from going in to the trash. It works really well. When you are scraping plates you often go fast and sometimes you miss a fork or a knife under a pile of napkins or are moving so fast, the utensils slide out of your hand.
It’s hard for me to explain what it looks like, but basically, instead of the whole top being open, there is a covering which has a slanted part which leads to the actual opening. The slanted part is so strongly magnetized, when you drop a piece of cutlery straight down towards the hole, it flies over and attached to the magnet.
Kimera has it.
At the restaurants I’ve worked at, the magnet thing was a big, thick rubber tube (outside diameter about 8", inside about 6", about 4" high) that goes over a hole in the sink area that leads into the trash can. This tube had two big and very strong magnets imbedded in either side. You would thump a plate sideways onto the rubber tube, thus depositing most of the half eaten food into the trash without having to touch it. The magnets were strong enough to grab any silverware you might have missed (normally the silverware went into a separate soak bin). They were also powerful enough that you needed to be strong to remove any silverware stuck to them, and the silverware would be magnetic after that.
This looks like the one Kimera was describing:
http://foodservicesupplies.sysco.com/catalog/item.asp?id=3721
I can’t seem to find the ones I’m familiar with, I suspect they came from the sink maker.
That’s exactly what we have at the pizza place where my night job is.
A piece of ferrous metal can be slightly magnetized merely by aligning it with the geomagnetic force field in your region and giving it a sharp rap with a hammer, which knocks the atoms into line so that the electromagnetism of each will work in concert with the others. (World Book Encyclopedia, 1960 edition).
Believe it or not, it really works. Once I was putting together a desk and had to put in a tiny Phillips screw. It was so small and the angle was so awkward–diagonal and upside down in a confined space, I couldn’t get it in without having it fall out before I couild tighten it. So I magnetized the screwdriver as described above, and found that the screw would stick to end of the screwdriver by itself, until I could insert and tighten it.
Interesting, I always thought restaurant flatware was made of 18/8 stainless steel (common 304 SS), which I believe is non-magnetic. Does anyone know what type of material these are made of? 400 series SS is magnetic, but I did not think it was common for flatware, because it is more prone to corrosion.