Any supply house that sells water drilling items. Neighbor and I bought some
couple of years ago for irrigation well he was sinking.
Don W7WLL
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hsu, Aaron [SMTP:aaron.hsu@unistudios.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 1998 3:48 PM
> To: 'antennas@qth.net'; 'towertalk@contesting.com'
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Bentonite? (longish)
>
>
>
> > Guy Atkins wrote...
> >
> > From: Guy Atkins[SMTP:4nradio@accessone.com]
> > Reply To: Guy Atkins
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 1998 1:19 PM
> > To: antennas@qth.net
> > Subject: [Antennas] Sources for Bentonite?
> >
> > Can anyone tell me the kind of store or supply house where I might find
> > the
> > mineral bentonite, used to enhance ground conductivity (i.e. around
> ground
> > rods)? Some years ago I visited a refining plant in Wyoming where
> > bentonite
> > is mined, and once brought back 30-50 lbs. of it (I was given a torn bag
> > of
> > it for free). Now I'm in need of more bentonite, but I don't plan a trip
> > to
> > Wyoming any time soon!
> >
> > This is excellent stuff: very conductive, non-corrosive to ground rods,
> > and
> > swells to make an extremely tight fit between the earth and the ground
> > rod(s) in an antenna system. Now, if I can only find some more of it!
> Any
> > suggestions? Thanks.
> >
> >
> > OK, this message intrigued me and I wondered, "what's Bentonite?" A
> > search on HOTBOT (http://www.hotbot.com) came up with over 5000 hits.
> > Going through the first few yielded info and suppliers. Canadian Clay
> > Products, Inc. had the specific answer I was looking for...what is it?
> > The description is at the bottom.
> >
> > Most of the world's Bentonite comes from Wyoming and So Dakota. I found
> > several uses for it - land fill, "Galvanic Anode Cathodic Protection"
> for
> > guy wires, intestinal tract cleansing, gound sealing and grout, waste
> > water treatment, livestock feed additive, beer and wine clairifier
> (during
> > brewing/aging), drilling mud, geosynthetics, and many more. Is there
> > anything this stuff doesn't do?
> >
> > ---------------
> > from Canadian Clay Products, Inc. website...
> >
> > What is Bentonite?
> > Bentonite is a clay mineral which is largely composed of
> montmorillonite,
> > which is mainly a hydrous aluminum silicate. It is a highly colloidal
> and
> > plastic clay with the unique characteristic of swelling to several times
> > its original volume when placed in water. Bentonite was formed from
> > volcanic ash deposited in an ancient sea, and modified by geological
> > process into the present Sodium Bentonite. The Bentonites were
> calculated
> > to have accumulated between 74.5 and 70 million years ago. At that time,
> > the Wilcox area was the center of a huge shallow inland sea which
> > stretched from the Arctic Ocean to present day Mexico and was at least
> > 1600 kilometers wide.
> >
> > Bentonite has been called the clay of a thousand uses. Sodium Bentonite
> is
> > noted for its affinity for water which gives it tremendous selling
> > properties. Soduim Bentonite contains exchangeable sodium cations. When
> > dispersed in water it breaks down into small plate-like particles
> > negatively charged on the surface, positively charged on the edges. This
> > unique ion exchange is responsible for the binding action which takes
> > place. Bentonite's small plate-like particles provide a tremendous
> > potential for surface area. It forms thixotropic gels with water even
> when
> > the amount of Bentonite in such gels is relatively small. These
> > characteristics give Bentonite an enormous range of potential uses.
> > -------------------------
> >
> > ...and it does seem to have an ENORMOUS range of uses! Interesting
> stuff.
> >
> > - Aaron Hsu
> > athsu@unistudios.com
> > dae@pacbell.net
> > No-QRO Int'l #1,000,006
> >
> >
> >
>
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