1. Last summer I put a new t-stat in my father-in-laws house and took down the 1963 Honeywell familiar version. I saw the cool Mercury bulb and announced to everyone that we need to properly recycle that deadly mercury and I brought it home. It's here and 5th grade Datsun310Guy thinks about messing with it instead but is currently being responsible.
2. Peer in grade school (1973-ish) brought Mercury in a small cocaine type container and showed us how he can break it up and chase it around his desk. Kinda think he's still alive.
3. My father born in 1935 told me he and his friends would break thermometers and play with the Mercury. He told me it was a thing to shine up silver dimes using Mercury. He lived to age 81 smoking 2-3 cheap cigars a day.
My dad's favorite recollection of mercury was in class, squeezing it between two ten-pence coins. Apparently it makes a rude sound...
Edit, he was born in 44 and still walks their rambunctious four-year-old border collie around the neighborhood multiple times a day.
The frank zappa story is wild.
that Francis would intermittently bring lab equipment filled with mercury home from work for Frank to play with. Years later, The Mothers of Invention man later said that he “used to play with it all the time”. Zappa recalled that he would put the mercury on the floor and use a hammer to spray out mercury droplets in a circular pattern, covering the whole of his bedroom floor.
As is commonly known, childhood exposure to elemental mercury is toxic, and in men, it exponentially increases the risk of developing prostate cancer in adulthood. In a tragic turn of events, Frank Zappa was diagnosed with a terminal form of the disease in 1990, and on December 4th, 1993, he succumbed to it.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-unusual-childhood-of-frank-zappa/?amp
I remember accidentally breaking a mercury thermometer as a kid and chasing the droplets around with a paper towel and being frustrated that they wouldn't soak into the towel.
I also remember as a young adult buying a piece of lab equipment at auction and finding it had about a full cup (as in 8 fl oz) of mercury inside it. I wonder what happened to that thing.
I was playing with a mercury thermometer by alternating running cold and hot water on bulb. It was fun to watch it go up and down with the temperature change. Then, I got the water too hot and the mercury broke through that top of the thermometer and shot onto the floor. It was pretty cool how it rolled around and I think I played with it for a few minutes or less.
I have probably two cups of mercury. Found it in the floor joists of a house we were tearing down.
I've used it to clean lead fouled barrels.
Found a vial of it in my buddy's parents garage when moving after living there for over 40 years. We considered playing with the stuff, but decided to bring it to SWA to properly dispose of it. Expected to fill out a bunch of papers in exchange, but just handed it to "Carlos" who probably put it in his pocket.
Gold is heavy. If you put it in a toilet, water will not flush it.
If you have a few gallons of mercury, that will do it.
Bonus: When the toilet valve can't open because it has a couple hundred pounds of mercury holding it shut, he reaches barehanded into the tank to lift it manually
I remember kids bringing it to school and us playing with it at recess, holding it in our hands watching it move around
Pete. (l33t FS) said:
Gold is heavy. If you put it in a toilet, water will not flush it.
If you have a few gallons of mercury, that will do it.
Bonus: When the toilet valve can't open because it has a couple hundred pounds of mercury holding it shut, he reaches barehanded into the tank to lift it manually
Did he receive a nice fine from the government for flushing Mercury down the toilet?
In reply to Slippery :
One of my customers has a chemical lab and I got a tour. The have special cabinets to hold chemicals and I was looking at them and a few jars/bottles had labels that looked like the 1950's.
I pointed that out and the chemist said it's probably easier to leave them there in the cabinet instead of finding the proper channel to properly dispose of it.
In reply to MyMiatas :
It was a neat setup. He put a toilet on a frame over a large metal bucket to collect the outflow, and contained the whole rig in a large heavy plastic basin.
Mercury's expensive, can't let a drop go to waste!
ShawnG
MegaDork
1/28/23 10:40 a.m.
There was a news story a few years back.
Someone at a local business dropped a mercury thermometer, freaked out and called 911.
Many emergency response and hazmat dollars later, the situation was under control.
Crazy.
When I bought my first house from the previous owner's widow, I found that he had a nifty collection of hardware and all sorts of odd old things in his workshop. One of those things was a glass vial of mercury. I ended up giving it to a friend of mine. No telling where it is now....
In all my years, I've never had a need for the stuff. I'm guessing that as evidence of it's toxicity grew, it was replaced for household uses by other products. What are some uses of mercury, other than the above-mentioned cleaning of barrels?
ShawnG
MegaDork
1/28/23 11:03 a.m.
Mercury switches.
I believe it has a use in refining gold.
Datsun310Guy said:
In reply to Slippery :
One of my customers has a chemical lab and I got a tour. The have special cabinets to hold chemicals and I was looking at them and a few jars/bottles had labels that looked like the 1950's.
I pointed that out and the chemist said it's probably easier to leave them there in the cabinet instead of finding the proper channel to properly dispose of it.
It's like that with Picric acid. Tons of places used to use it since as an acid, it reacts and does measurable and predictable things with tons of other compounds. Except it's also oh-berkeley explosive and was used for centuries in artillery shells, so to dispose of it a bomb squad has to set it off in a blast container on site.
ShawnG said:
Mercury switches.
I believe it has a use in refining gold.
I know of commercial uses. Was thinking more of household uses. It seems like a lot of people kept this stuff around the house for some reason 50-100 years ago. Why?
I found this in a 1994 story from a Florida newspaper:
Some South Florida botanicas - religious supply stores found in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties - routinely sell mercury in gelatin capsules to their customers, who then sprinkle it around their homes to ward off evil spirits or bring good luck.
The most common buyers of the botanica mercury, labeled azogue, and also sold in glass vials, are Hispanic and Haitian adherents to Santeria and voodoo religions.
