marked141,
You asked if the sound of a metal could determine what the metal might be made of. Yes and no. When it comes to differentiating copper/zinc pennies from copper pennies, I'd know the sound difference anywhere when either is dropped on a hard surface. When differentiating silver/copper Kennedy halves from copper/nickel halves, again, yes I can. However, with all the different metals and combinations of metals used in the construction of just about everything else, no, I would say sound would not be of much help.
I know of one youtube video where the author claims the wire used in the read/write head of a hard drive head is gold. I've yet to come across one that was. I have not had the experience yet to do exceedingly large batches of ancient hard drives and I would suspect there may have been some made. Lost would certainly be a wealth of knowledge in that department though. I can say that resins in laminates used for wires and PCBDs can make the copper look gold, yet upon further investigation, proved to be copper.
If you take a look at the very tip of the hard drive read/write head, the space between where the disk would have been, you'll notice what looks like a fleck of pepper or dirt! It's not, from what I understand that is Rhodium. A rare earth metal you can, if so inclined, collect. Due to size and weight however, it will take many many hard drives to accumulate.
Your question regarding metals used in the construction of various types of contacts. The list is long and varied. Silver, Molybdenum, Copper, Cadmium, Iron, Nickel, Tungsten, Magnesium, Palladium, Platinum, Gold and others in various combinations. From your picture, it looks like it could be gold. As Lost would say however, "all that glitters, is not necessarily gold". There is a tool some jewelers use that might be able to discern the metal content however. The tool is extremely expensive. You may be able to find a jeweler or coin shop that has one. Perhaps they could help. Short of looking up the part number of the device your're interested in and perhaps getting lucky enough to list components used in construction, that would be my answer. You could also check out goldrefiningforum.com . Smart group of folks over there that could, perhaps help you out as well. I'm sure Lost will be along to shed more light on what you have as well.
Your connector. Yes, used in the aerospace industry, military and other applications. High quality components go into the construction. For many of the parts I've ordered like these, some companies do list materials of construction. The blue lettering on your connector is the part number. You could google or duckduckgo that p/n and see what comes up. The wire is more than likely silver plated copper, though hard to tell from the picture. The female pin appears to be gold plated brass with a nickel cap so the fingers inside better grip the mating male pin. As to the metals used in the connector body, like I said earlier, the part number may help you out there. Again, Lost has a wealth of knowledge and perhaps could shed more light on the subject.
Back to your question regarding metals used in contacts, relays etc. Yes, there are numerous metals used in the construction. But I'm not sure how many, if any scrap yards buy mixed metals like that or how they'd be classified so you could profit from your time separating. Others on this forum should know or may know.
Looks like a nice pile of parts to wade thru though!!!
Enjoy,
RustyFuryIII
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