The price of silver and the other precious metals is thought to be at least partially attributable to their use in manufacturing. Silver has marched into industry with the electronics age. And for a long time now, more of that metal is going into industrial products than into silverware, jewelry or the arts.

Two chief talking points for silver’s use in industry are: 1. Its boosters say silver is “the best conductor of electricity known to man.” 2. They say that silver alloys used to join two metals make solder so strong that the metal parts themselves will break before the silver joint will.

The annual demand for silver can fluctuate quite a bit because most of its consumption is industrial. For silver goes into autos, farm tractors, bicycles, dishwashers washing machines, sewing machines, lawn mowers, guns and phones, as well as into electronics like computers, video and audio equipment. Also, the silverware and jewelry makers use significant ammounts.

When the economy is expanding the demand for silver increases. More and more durable goods require silver. Since the mid 1950′s, one of the biggest uses of silver has been in circuit boards that are included in most everything these days.

Silver has plenty of competition in industry from other metals. At upwards of twenty-five dollars an ounce — silver’s price for more than two years — it is an expensive metal. Copper and aluminum are much cheaper conductors of electricity. And not even the most avid silver salesman contends that electric power and telephone companies should string silver across the land.

Baser metals are much cheaper as solder. But silver proponents have some sales points for certain uses. Because of its low melting point, silver solder flows easily and a small quantity does an effective job, lowering unit costs.

Silver is adaptable to mass production use, they say. Two metal parts to be joined are brought together, with a workman inserting silver alloys between them in the form of wire or ring. The entire assembly is sent through a heat process and the two metals are strongly joined. In the middle of the last century your family percolator, toaster or electric stove may have such joints.

In refrigerators and air conditioners, silver is used to make leak-tight non-corrosive joints of the pipes. Its ductility keeps the joint from cracking or breaking when jarred or strained, silver producers say.

Tney add that because use of silver solder cuts down on handling and eliminates the labor costs of threading pipes, considerable silver is to be found in the piping jobs under indoor ice skating rinks. Now the silver research technicians are studying the problems of joining some of the newer industrial materials, like titanium.