"Jon Danniken" wrote in message
...
"Ed Huntress" wrote:

Low-silicon bronze. The guy had a bad accent. d8-)

Electrical properties (I'll let you figure this one out): Electrical
conductivity, volumetric, 12% IACS at 20 deg. C (68 F). Electrical
resistivity, 144 n-ohms-meter at 20 deg. C.

For comparison, here's the grade of copper used for high quality wi
Electrical conductivity, volumetric, annealed, 101% IACS at 20 deg. C (68
F). Electrical resistivity, 17.1 n-ohms-meter at 20 deg. C.

What this means is that the electrical conductivity of silicon bronze
sucks. It has about 1/5 of the conductivity of pure aluminum.

Okay, thanks Ed. He did say the local utility used them alot, although I
don't know if it was for electrical connections or not.

BTW, is that data you posted from an accessible website by any channce?
I'd like to look up brass for a comparison.

It probably is available online. There are several metals information sites;
I haven't used them for a few years so I can't help there. But other people
here probably know what they are.

I pulled it from a big volume from the American Society for Metals that I
keep at my desk, _Properties and Selection: Nonferrous Alloys and Pure
Metals_, 9th Edition. I only have this thing because I was once Materials
editor for _American Machinist_. It's very expensive. You'll find it in many
engineering-school libraries. It's Volume 2 of the ASM set, which includes
ferrous metals and other stuff.

Silicon bronze is basically a multi-purpose corrosion-resistant bronze. It's
sometimes called "naval bronze," but that's a misnomer. Other bronzes are
more traditionally called naval bronze and they're better in marine
environments. But silicon bronze isn't bad in that regard. Its big virtues
are that it's relatively cheap and it's easy to cast, and fairly easy to
machine. It's widely used for screws in the building of wooden boats. I've
used a lot of it for various jobs.

--
Ed Huntress