November 18, 2008: Vampire Killing Kit

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by newtimer

I thought 3 silver bullets were for disposing of werewolves.

Coincidentally, I just learned some really interesting facts about the history of silver bullets re: werewolves that I've been dying to share with someone.

It turns out that the reason silver developed a reputation for supernatural qualities was that--several hundred years ago, at least--it didn't tarnish. The primary tarnishing agent of silver is sulphur, and before the Industrial Revolution, there wasn't enough of it in the air to noticeably tarnish anything made of silver. Nowadays, of course, there's plenty in the air. But beyond that, most organic poisons contain a relatively significant amount of sulphur, so back then one would use a silver knife or bowl to test food and drink for poison, since it would quickly tarnish the utensil.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

The primary tarnishing agent of silver is sulphur, and before the Industrial Revolution, there wasn't enough of it in the air to noticeably tarnish anything made of silver.

Fascinating. I love hearing about stuff like this. I tried to look up a little more about it. One of the first things I found was "The Straight Dope" saying that this is probably not true, because volcanoes produced enough sulfur before the industrial revolution that silver would tarnish. But it does acknowledge the idea and does say that there was less sulfur back then, so who knows?