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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Self-disinfecting harps
Self-disinfecting harps
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BlueDoc
72 posts
Oct 26, 2012
6:43 PM
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In the course of some random late-night Wikipedia reading I came across this article about the anti-microbial properties of copper (and copper alloys like brass and bronze):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_properties_of_copper
The article explains that bacteria don't live more than a few hours on copper, and mentions that hospitals now use brass on touch surfaces such as doorknobs instead of stainless steel, on which germs can stay alive for weeks.
This suggests to me that maybe I don't have to be all that worried about germs living inside my grotty old harps, and that wiping down the cover plates with disinfectant is enough to keep them reasonably sanitary.
Maybe someone could make a self-disinfecting harp using a solid brass comb and brass coverplates. Unless all that brass was toxic to us as well... In that case, they could use silver-plated covers, since silver is antibacterial also, but not as toxic to humans as copper.
Just a hopeful thought, for some of us neat-freak harpers...
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nacoran
6160 posts
Oct 26, 2012
7:17 PM
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I think there is a spray on glass that is anti-microbial too. As for all brass, Chris Reynolds makes brass combs. There are a couple models of Hering and a Seydel at least that have brass colored covers, but I don't know if any of them are actually brass.
http://www.builderofstuff.com/harpsforsale.html
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/02/spray-on-liquid-glass-to-make-things.html
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BlueDoc
73 posts
Oct 26, 2012
10:05 PM
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I don't know anything about this (or about much else, actually) except what I read in Wikipedia. Here's what I found out:
Copper pots are usually lined with another metal (tin, stainless steel, etc.) to prevent the copper dissolving when cooking acidic foods. Otherwise, toxic amounts of copper can leach into the food.
Stills are made with copper because copper transfers heat very well, and because it removes bad-tasting sulfur compounds from the alcohol. Apparently you don't get enough copper in your alcohol to be a problem.
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