It is indeed the vapor that’s dangerous, but mercury readily vaporizes to a dangerous degree at room temperature.
Maybe one of the physicians on the board can confirm what I’ve heard are the short term affects of ingesting it. If I remember correctly if you drink some elemental mercury it will act as a very good physical laxative.
Mercury is neat. I’m glad I came form an unenlightened age when kids could get away wirh chasing a bit of it around the lab table in class!
(of course, I live in a house with lead-based paint, and flaking asbestos - and still ticking)
Hey danceswithcats,
Funny story about picric acid. The chemistry building of my old university was found to contain a bunch of picric acid sitting on a shelf since god knows when. As there was a sufficient quantity to destroy the entire building, the bomb squad was called in. They took it out to a nearby field and detonated it. What they didn’t realize was that the site they chose was situated directly over a water main. Hilarity ensued.
-Apoptosis
When I was in junior high school, the teacher passed around a little vial of mercury that we were allowed to play with, as long as we only rolled it around inside the vial.
I was left pretty bitter at the universe, which creates something so darned pretty and then doesn’t let you touch it.
Yeah. My chemistry teacher told us that if a mercury thermometer broke, to “leave the room quickly.”
That’s paranoid nonsense.
I’ve broken a mercury thermometer, played with the mercury for hours, preserved it in a little vial, and then played with it again on more than one occasion.
I’m alive, healthy, intelligent and drop-dead gorgeous. So there.
Yeah, well, he was a Ph.D, so I think I’ll trust his opinion.
It is extremely dangerous, because it is the innermost planet of our solar system and is very hot. If only people would just leave it alone!
What?
Why, my mom used to float my cradle in a basin of mercury and I turned out GREAT. Between that and those awesome tasty potato chips I peeled off the windowsill…
I’m not saying he’s wrong, or that mercury is a safe, harmless element. I’m saying that “Eek! The thermometer broke! Run! Run for your lives!” is just a tad bit alarmist.
i’m sure you know that a PhD does not automatically imply infallibility.
And Mangetout, that was horribly good! thoroughly amused
We played with mercury all the time when we were kids. Children’s chemistry sets came with a vial full of the stuff. Great fun. And it won’t hurt you unless you snort it for long periods of time. Mmmm…mercury…
Now I want to play with mercury.
Stop bragging
When I was a kid I always wondered what it would be like to try and walk on a swimming pool filled with Mercury. Could you do it?
John Varley wrote a story on that, Retrograde Summer. It featured a large pool of mercury on Venus. You didn’t walk or swim, you just glided around on your belly. They had a large boulder floating out it the middle to jump off of, and the vapors made pretty colors. (You had to have your null suit on though)
I got to play with mercury, but I never succeeded in silvering the penny. It just slid right off. What’s up with that?
My high school science teacher gave us mercury to take home, for crying out loud. Is it really necessary for schools to possess this stuff?
Paint chips? Hah! We used to dream of eating paint chips. Why, we had to eat molten lead for breakfast, and we loved it.
My Dad was a dentist and used mercury to mix with some other metal to make an… um… amalgam? for fillings. We (my brother and me) got to play with it all the time! Well, not all the time. But a few times! It was cool. I don’t remember when I learned that it was poisonous. Maybe when I heard about mercury poisoning from shellfish. You people have enlightened me that the vapor is the dangerous stuff.
I don’t think I have any dain bramage.
My Dad was a dentist and used mercury to mix with some other metal to make an… um… amalgam? for fillings. We (my brother and me) got to play with it all the time! Well, not all the time. But a few times! It was cool. I don’t remember when I learned that it was poisonous. Maybe when I heard about mercury poisoning from shellfish. You people have enlightened me that the vapor is the dangerous stuff.
I don’t think I have any dain bramage.