Silver and nitric acid

Smieglitz@aol.com
Sun, 02 Nov 1997 11:01:06 -0500 (EST)

>Nitric will dissolve silver. It will generate very nasty gases so it should
>be done under a fume hood or outdoors with you standing up wind and the
>fumes blowing into the neighbors backyard. (Gads no, just kidding!)

Anyone on the list know a recipe for making silver nitrate? Perhaps a
reference book? I've heard photographers in the 1800's used to make silver
emulsions by dissolving silver coins in nitrate acid in order to obtain the
silver nitrate. Does it precipitate out? How do you concentrate/purify it,
etc. ?

I'd like to try it if it isn't too involved, but I'm not a chemist.
Eventually i'd like to dig out some silver ore (I know a locale), dissolve
the rock, extract the silver, form the silver nitrate, coat the solution on
a salted handmade paper, and then probably store the results in a box in a
closet with my other experiments.

Any pointers appreciated. Thanks.

Joe