When I was in high school, I bought a whole bunch of mercury switches at RadioShack, for my physics class. (These are little glass vials shaped like Christmas tree lights, with a bead of mercury insided. When tipped over, it forms a closed circuit with two wires emerging from and into the tube. They were fundamental components of a Rube Goldberg machine I made.) They are commonly used in thermostats to control when the heater kicks in. In high school, I didn’t know how dangerous they could be if broken, and I don’t remember seeing *any * type of warning on the packages.
You can find them at any decent rock and mineral show, by the pound.
I have one right here from Radio Shack; it has no warning on it whatsoever.
As has been discussed previously on this Board, the danger of liquid mercury at room temperatures has been greatly sensationalized by the popular scientifically illiterate press.
At one time, I had two enormous vials of mercury; I don’t know how large they were exactly, I estimated they were several pounds each once. My ex girlfriend, the physician, gave them away because they were “too dangerous”. Bitch, I want my fucking mercury vials back… :mad:
I am 62 years old. I grew up in central Massachusetts. As a child of 6 or 7 I remember getting a vial of mercury as a toy, in a blister pak I believe it was called Liquid Metal. I used to play with it for hours. Hated dropping it on the carpet! When it finally was gone, I remember my Dad broke a thermometer and he gave me the mercury from inside so I got to play with it a few days longer.
Who knows what havoc it reeked with my body or my brain. I have enough issues that it would keep researchers busy for years looking for links to mercury poisoning.
As a side note, as late as 1968, women who were near ready to give birth were given X-rays of their pelvis called Pelvimetry to determine if the baby was ready to come out. Babies are full of stem cells which are the most radio sensitive of all cells. How many birth defects were caused by those exams???
They’re certainly not readily available for sale these days, but there are still quite a few of them around. It’s not like Thermometer Police come to your house and demand you hand them over. I still have one, a cooking thermometer I’ve had for over 30 years. The mercury is completely sealed so as long as it’s intact it’s safe to use. The problem of course, is that if it breaks you now have a toxic, liquid metal prone to vaporizing in your kitchen. This is not a good scenario. Not instantly fatal, either, but I should probably replace it.
When I was a schoolboy in the 50s, we used to think it great fun to rub mercury on to copper coins with our fingers to make them silver. I can remember that in scrapyards, mercury was often collected in a small drum. It was a normal prank to send the apprentice to pick it up, and laugh when he couldn’t.
The NHS stopped using mercury thermometers back in the 70s. Droplets of mercury from broken thermometers could be found in the corners of the floor in most wards.
My father had a wall mounted barometer with a large quantity of mercury in it - I have no idea what happened to it.
That’s not nearly as bad as the story one of my college professors told: He was visiting a scientist who had worked on the Manhattan Project during WW2. At one point, the guy opened his desk drawer and pulled out a rock from the site of the Trinity blast. He also took out a geiger counter. The rock was highly radioactive. The scientist was extremely proud of his Trinity rock, the way you might be proud of having an autograph from a celebrity you love. My professor was flabberghasted that this guy would keep such a thing in his desk drawer.
I assume he died of cancer many, many years ago.
About the “alcohol” in thermometers-
I have seen and smelled more broken spirit-filled thermometers than I can remember. Wikipedia says “The liquid used can be pure ethanol, toluene, kerosene or Isoamyl acetate, depending on manufacturer and working temperature range.”
All the ones I smelled were highly reminiscent of Kiwi brand paste shoe polish.
Any chance he returned as a zombie?
Nobody made the old joke about mercury being found in hg wells?
I think you might find it circling the sun.
zombie or no
hard to find, always on the move.
My 1960’s era high school chemistry teacher used to have a big bottle of mercury that he would pour into his hands and let run onto his desk and then push around until it was all in one big pool and then he would push it to the side of the desk and let it pour off the edge back into the bottle.
Several years later, he was hospitalized for an 'unknown" ailment and they eventually settled on mercury poisoning. When they questioned him about mercury exposure, he told them about his “experiments” and they tested his desk (still in the same classroom) and found that it was giving off mercury vapor to the point that the school had to hire a toxic waste company to get rid of it. It wasn’t so much his occasional handling that was the issue, it was breathing the vapor all day every day that got him.
Elemental mercury’s a laugh compared to some of its compounds, like dimethylmercury, a few drops of which killed Karen Wetterhahn, even through latex lab gloves.
When they pry it out of your dead hand, they will know exactly how cold it is.
- The silver liquid in thermometers now is an alloy of gallium. Cite: Facts, pictures, stories about the element Gallium in the Periodic Table
- Still looking for mercury? Sphygmomanometers are where it’s at!