Help identifying wire from Hammond organ

[Joesjunkyard]

Hey y’all, just wondering if you can help me identify the wire in my first picture. I can’t test right now. It’s thin and somewhat brittle. It came from the board underneath the pedal contacts(I think that’s the location but I was in a hurry and it was days ago when I ripped it all apart. I think they were tacked onto the contact board in a couple spots. Sorry for the lack of info. Hopefully someone can help. Came from a Hammond 123XL

 

[Alondro]

Hey y’all, just wondering if you can help me identify the wire in my first picture. I can’t test right now. It’s thin and somewhat brittle. It came from the board underneath the pedal contacts(I think that’s the location but I was in a hurry and it was days ago when I ripped it all apart. I think they were tacked onto the contact board in a couple spots. Sorry for the lack of info. Hopefully someone can help. Came from a Hammond 123XL

If they're just contact wires from the back of a board, they're probably just tin-plated copper wire.

 

[Marcel]

It is crucial for these instruments that their many electromechanical contacts do not fail. They are exposed to humidity and dirt, and are activated very frequently, much more so than a light switch for example. Only precious metals can withstand such conditions and applications. Since the contacts are under heavy mechanical stress, compared to modern smartphone touchscreens or keyboards, the type of metal used for both parts of the contact must be made of the same material. Otherwise, according to the redox series, a small current will flow each time they come in contact, transporting electrons and leading to corrosion of the weaker metal. Therefore, it is important to check the opposite part of these contacts. If they are gold-plated, then this wire is likely also gold-plated, but I suspect it is made of pure gold (or both gold and palladium). Silver contacts would not be suitable in this case, because they oxidize too fast.

Why not simply plating? Because of the forces applied, plated Gold would not last. The ideal contact would be massive Gold on both sides.

Using a wire is a way to reduce overall costs, instead of dip-plating (dipping a piece of metal in molten gold, which provides the thickest and most durable plating), they wrap the precious metal wire around the base metal. This saves material compared to dipping the entire wire into gold.

The wire is a compromise. On the one hand, it has sufficient thickness to ensure many activations of the contact. On the other hand, there is no need to fully plate the underlying material, which can save around 90% of the material cost while maintaining an acceptable life expectancy or MTBF (Mean Time between two Failures).
The base metal should be an alloy with a melting point above that of gold so that it can withstand the dipping procedure. However, in this case, since heat is not applied, a simple copper or brass alloy could be used as the base metal.
As an engineer, these would be considerations when being asked to develop a solution for a contact that can last but at the same time drive down production costs.
Another option could be to replace Gold with another metal that has similar electrical and mechanical properties. Back in the day, Palladium was a byproduct of Nickel and other ores. There was no major application for it, so it was inexpensive. That is why in a certain era, from the 1980s to the 1990s, we find a lot of Palladium in electronics. It was much cheaper than gold while providing similar properties for electrical conductivity, corrosion resistance, thermal conductivity, and ductility. The era of cheap Palladium ended with the introduction of its use as a catalyst in cars. Palladium has an almost unique ability to absorb huge amounts of gas. From that time on, the demand and price of Palladium have risen, and its usage in electronics has declined.

 

[orvi]

Hey y’all, just wondering if you can help me identify the wire in my first picture. I can’t test right now. It’s thin and somewhat brittle. It came from the board underneath the pedal contacts(I think that’s the location but I was in a hurry and it was days ago when I ripped it all apart. I think they were tacked onto the contact board in a couple spots. Sorry for the lack of info. Hopefully someone can help. Came from a Hammond 123XL

You will need to test it somehow otherwise, it will stay labeled as just "wire"
1. magnetic/nonmagnetic - this is first thing, probably most obvious and easiest to perform. Magnetic, that means some ferrous alloy, in the best scenario plated with PM. Slightly magnetic, still can be PM plated, but has nickel underplating, or it is some PM alloy containing nickel.

2. I call this "lighter test". You take a small piece of the wire and use lighter to heat the end of it to at least dull red heat, better above. Then remove the flame and observe what happens.
If the wire is solid metal (not plated), in the reducing part of the flame, the colour of the metal remains consistent during whole heating period. If it is plated, above red heat, plating metal start to diffuse into the metal underneath and color irreversibly change, more close to the metal of the basis of the wire.
If the wire is silver or platinum (solid), heating does not cause any discolouration or oxidation. It will cool and does not make any oxide layer (wire will stay metallic and shiny). If the wire is pure palladium, it will form colorful oxides on the surface upon cooling. Oxides will also form on the surface of the ferrous metals wires, but these are magnetic
Alloys of AgPd (from 20 to 80% Pd) generally tend to behave like silver in this test.

Needless to say, this is only informative and not definite testing method. It´ll give you good clues of what you have in hand, but you need at least one chemical or spectral proof.

If it isn´t silver (what you can easily elucidate with above test), you will be really OK with plain HCL and bit of household bleach to test the composition of the wires. Colour of the solution will tell you quite accurately