Autumn Downey on fri 3 nov 00
WEll, I might have known Ron Roy was right!
I tracked down the new company that still makes "Moody's Watersoftener" -
amd guess what? This stuff that I am finding very useful is plain old TSP.
(Someone else in a different company had come up with the guess that
sodium hexametaphosphate was the chemical in Moody's.)
The Moody's company chemist did say that sodium hexametaphosphate would
also cause precipitation but more of it would be required. The long and
short of it is that phosphates cause precipitation, he told me. So, I
guess maybe that's where the old Calgon fitted in.
In the process of finding out about sodium hexametaphosphate, I found out
that there's a food grade of the stuff that's used for "muddling" beer, and
as a coating for dogfood because it tends to do something with the calcium
and magnesium and therefore helps prevent plaque. A cheery guy with
another company that makes sodium hexametaphosphate told me that its main
use was in making hot dogs - but you may not want more information about
that application...
I also did a quick check of the MSDS for these two chemicals and other than
some caustic qualities, nothing too dreadful showed up. There seems to be
a food grade for TSP as well, ... oh dear...
Finally satisfied that the pieces fit - but think of all the time I should
have been potting and wasn't!!
Autumn Downey
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