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I recall an article re mag springs in the American Handgunner several years back, and it may be the same one. They interviewed an independent spring metalurgist, and reps from Wolff. That (or my memories of it) and a couple of similar articles since are my "source of great wisdom".
When my grandfather's will distribution was made, I was given a trunk that contained several gov't issue 1911 mags, fully loaded, that had been stored for a known 20 years, and quite possibly longer. I believe there were six mags (my cousin and I divided several items, and memory fades) and all but one functioned. These had butt plates stamped with his artillery unit number. The mag spring that failed had a different coil shape than the others, and could have been a replacement. I still shot these at the range up to about 12 years ago, so the service life of these particular springs was (is - they're in a drawer now, but I'd use them) approximately 80 years or more. "They don't make 'em like they used to" isn't true in this case, even with this example. Modern spring metallurgy and heat treatments are about 20 light years ahead of those WW1 springs. If anything, they are examples of the care taken in manufacture and QC in those days.
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