CROCKPOT PAGE III

This experiment will be with pure distilled water and includes an air stone attached to a 5-15 gallon aquarium pump. I drilled a little hole in the top lid that the hose barely squeezed through. The air stone is attached to the air hose and is left dangling, not touching the bottom. I do not yet know if the temperature is too high and will melt the hose. These coins are leftovers from failed experiments, as well as some coins I had soaking in distilled water for a few days. The outside layers of dirt have already been removed, so we are down to the more compact and stubborn dirt. Let's see what happens...

After about 48 hours of soaking, here's what we have. I ran out of distilled water so had to use some of my ws/dw mix. With the hole for the hose, some water is evaporating, and I need to add a cup or so to it every 12 hours. I didn't want to seal it, for I may want to experiment with changing the depth of the air stone. The heat proved too much for the air stone. The plastic fitting melted, the air stone fell to the bottom, and broke into a hundred pieces.

Considerable dirt has been removed. Quite a few coins only need a hit with a silver brush, and others need more soaking. Heat seems to help with the soaking process, but without spending a considerable amount, I won't be able to pursue the moving water with the heat experiment. I will add a fish tank heater in the future to my fishtank, which will add 20 degrees or so to the ambient temperature. That might be enough to speed things up. I have to classify this as a mixed success,

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