SILVER The origin of the name Silver is thought to of come from an old English word Seofor which was a used to characterize the metal. The symbol for silver, Ag, is derived from the Latin word argentum which may have originated from the Greek word argos, meaning "shiny" or "white." Some of the history of silver is unclear in some areas. There is no record of the person or persons who discovered silver because it was discovered a long time ago most likely the discovery occurred very early in human history.
Archaeologists have found silver objects dating to around 3400 B.C. in Egypt. There are also drawings of men working with metal, most likely extracting silver from ores, in the oldest pyramids. There are written records or silver in India dating back to about 900 B.C. There are also references to silver in the Bible it was a form of money and a decorative piece.
The Bible also describes the manufacturing process of silver. Silver was once found in large quantities, but they disappeared long ago due to mining. Now silver comes in comes in very small amounts from ore and is commonly a by-product of mining of other metals. The major silver producing countries are the United States, Mexico, Canada, Peru, Russia, and Australia.
There are many uses for silver some of which that are common place and others that are not. An obvious one is for the use of coins, jewelry, and artwork, which is used for about 10% of the silver produced in the United States. About half of the silver produced in the United States is used for the production of photographic film. This is done by pure silver being converted to a compound of silver chloride, silver bromide, or silver iodide which is used to make the photographic film. An other important use for silver is in electrical and electronic equipment. Electrical and electronic equipment account for about 20% of the silver produced. Because silver lets electricity flow through it better than any other metal it is the most desirable of all metals for electronics. Silver is used for devices that are so important that cost is not an issue such as electrical devices on spacecraft, satellites, and aircraft so they can work reliably and efficiently. Silver plating is an other use for when pure silver can not be used so that silver is laid on another metal in which the metal takes on some of the properties of the silver coating. Other common uses for silver is for dental amalgams, batteries (silver-zinc and silver-cadmium batteries), medicines, mirrors, it can act as a catalyst in chemical reactions to promote the oxidation of organic compounds in the vapor state such as in cars, and to make alloys.