Eunjangdo

[Ren Ren]

Originally Posted by Philip

Regarding the alloy's use as a diagnostic tool -- somewhere in the past I read an article (can't remember where or when published) whose author stated that silver chopsticks were the norm at royal banquets because tarnishing during use could signal the presence of poison in the food.

After my post was published, I spoke with my friend from Germany and he said that the substance in urine that acts on the surface of copper alloys is ammonia. Its percentage and, if I may say so, "purity" are individual for each person, so the resulting color shades can vary quite a lot.

I also learned that silver reacts quickly with arsenic. Probably arsenic was the most common poison in antiquity. Therefore, the use of silver chopsticks in Korea as indicators of the presence of poison may have reasonable grounds.