Post by thread:[OT] Liquid Mercury Source

Strange request here. Does anyone know how to buy small quanities of mercury? I like making visually interesting things, and one of my projects I want to do involves mercury. But due to it's dangers, finding anyone that is willing to sell to an individual is pretty hard. I live in Berkeley CA so I thought I could find a chemical supply place locally, but no such luck so far. Also I don't need 99.999999% purity at $500 an ounce either, as it's just going to be used because it's shiny. I am aware of it's dangers and plan on sealing it air tight and am not going to be pouring any lefovers in the drain or putting it out in the trash. If I find enough, I'll be making something with a PIC to control it and will post pictures. :-) Thanks! -- Ian Smith http://www.ian.org

On Fri, 13 Jun 2008 spam_OUTpiclistTakeThisOuTian.org wrote: > Strange request here. Does anyone know how to buy small quanities of > mercury? I like making visually interesting things, and one of my > projects I want to do involves mercury. But due to it's dangers, finding > anyone that is willing to sell to an individual is pretty hard. > > I live in Berkeley CA so I thought I could find a chemical supply place > locally, but no such luck so far. Also I don't need 99.999999% purity > at $500 an ounce either, as it's just going to be used because it's shiny. > > I am aware of it's dangers and plan on sealing it air tight and am not > going to be pouring any lefovers in the drain or putting it out in the > trash. > > If I find enough, I'll be making something with a PIC to control it and > will post pictures. :-) > > Thanks! Depending on what you want to do, there is a gallium / indium ( / tin ?) alloy that is liquid at room temp. It is used in "safe" thermometers in place of mercury. It is non toxic unlike mercury. The upside of this alloy is that you don't need to seal it in a container. The down side is that it wets glass so the glass needs to be coated with something to stop it going silver (gallium oxide IIRC). Regards Sergio Masci

> Strange request here. Does anyone know how to buy small > quantities of > mercury? I like making visually interesting things, and > one of my > projects I want to do involves mercury. But due to it's > dangers, finding > anyone that is willing to sell to an individual is pretty > hard. These people in Oregon have it or compounds and will sell it to you at no minimum price. Hazmat shipping on such may be horrendous and you may have to convince them that you are a worthy buyer. How much do you need? Old large surplus thermometers may yield enough. Very old barometers also used a mercury column, but liable to be vanishingly hard to find. Like this one for $1000 :-( http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/10041-ADMIRAL-FITZROY-ANTIQUE-MERCURY-BAROMETER_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em124QQcategoryZ28296QQihZ014QQitemZ330240618393QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD4V Dental suppliers may be able to help. Or a friendly local dentist - old amalgam filling residue can quite possibly be processed by heating, but it's unlikely you will find a willing supplier and the hazards are high. Professional gold mining suppliers will stock it. Russell

Mercury is used on gyros for ships. Our gyro tech at work used to have a big bottle because when you do the service on them about once a year you remove the old mercury and replace it. If you are near a major port you probably have a company that does gyro service near you. Brian Kraut Engineering Alternatives, Inc. http://www.engalt.com {Original Message removed}

Bob Blick wrote: > On Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:49:34 -0400 (EDT), piclistKILLspamian.org said: > >> Strange request here. Does anyone know how to buy small quanities of >> mercury? >> How about a home thermostat which often have tilt switches with a small quantity of mercury in a glass tube. Perhaps a search of digikey or mouser for tilt switches might be fruitful. Vic -- *____________________________________________________________________________________________* *Victor Fraenckel KC2GUI windswaytoo ATSIGN gmail DOT com** *

On Fri, 13 Jun 2008, sergio masci wrote: > Depending on what you want to do, there is a gallium / indium ( / tin ?) > alloy that is liquid at room temp. It is used in "safe" thermometers in > place of mercury. It is non toxic unlike mercury. The upside of this alloy > is that you don't need to seal it in a container. The down side is that it > wets glass so the glass needs to be coated with something to stop it going > silver (gallium oxide IIRC). I actually have some nice chunks of pure gallium, as well as the alloy that is liquid at room tempature. The wetting problem is indeed why I have not considered it, as I have not found a way of coating anything and keeping it transparent. The other issue is oxidation which will slowly destroy the alloy unless I manage to get it into an oxygen-free enviroment. Fun to experiment with, but not easy to make anything long term with which is a pain as it's not cheap either. The weird thing about gallium is it's listed as non-toxic in most places, but a number of others mention that nobody really knows much about it's long term effects since contact with it was so very rare and it was not studied. -- Ian Smith http://www.ian.org

On Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 4:55 PM, PAUL James <.....James.PaulKILLspam.....colibrys.com> wrote: > > > This may be naïve on my part, but is there any form of Mercury other than liquid? > There's a lot of different compounds of mercury. Ethyl mercury, methyl mercury, mercury fulminate, mercuric chloride... I just checked the site for United Nuclear, and they do indeed sell mercury in small volumes. http://www.unitednuclear.com/chem.htm It's expensive, though. One supplier I talked to wanted $1/ml. -- Paul Anderson VE3HOP EraseMEwackyvorlonspam_OUTTakeThisOuTgmail.com http://www.oldschoolhacker.com QRP ARCI #13228, GQRP #12447

On Fri, 13 Jun 2008 piclistspam_OUTian.org wrote: {Quote hidden}> On Fri, 13 Jun 2008, sergio masci wrote: > > Depending on what you want to do, there is a gallium / indium ( / tin ?) > > alloy that is liquid at room temp. It is used in "safe" thermometers in > > place of mercury. It is non toxic unlike mercury. The upside of this alloy > > is that you don't need to seal it in a container. The down side is that it > > wets glass so the glass needs to be coated with something to stop it going > > silver (gallium oxide IIRC). > > I actually have some nice chunks of pure gallium, as well as the alloy > that is liquid at room tempature. The wetting problem is indeed why I > have not considered it, as I have not found a way of coating anything and > keeping it transparent. The other issue is oxidation which will slowly > destroy the alloy unless I manage to get it into an oxygen-free > enviroment. Fun to experiment with, but not easy to make anything long > term with which is a pain as it's not cheap either. > > The weird thing about gallium is it's listed as non-toxic in most places, > but a number of others mention that nobody really knows much about it's > long term effects since contact with it was so very rare and it was not > studied. I remember reading that cerium oxide changes the chemistry of the surface of glass when it is used to polish it. I don't remember in what way but it might be worth investigating (cerium oxide is very easy to get hold of and is relatively cheap). Also it may be worth looking into how others coat glass with gallium oxide, it may not be that hard. It would be a little ironic if all you had to do was coat the glass with gallium and then just let the coating oxidise :-) Anyway I was quite surprised to learn how easy it is to coat glass with tin oxide. Regards Sergio Masci

At 04:55 PM 6/13/2008, you wrote: >All, > >This may be naïve on my part, but is there any >form of Mercury other than liquid? > > > Jim Not generally, at STP (with some vapor pressure). But if you were in Boca, California on January 20, 1937 you could have seen Hg in the solid state. http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wcstates.htm Best regards, Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" @spam@speffKILLspaminterlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

I have maybe a fluid oz of mercury that I will sell to you if we can figure out a safe way to ship it. ( or a partial quantity ) respond if interested at RemoveMEmercuryTakeThisOuTnope9.com I am in Denver, CO cc On Jun 13, 2008, at 1:49 PM, spamBeGonepiclistspamBeGoneian.org wrote: Strange request here. Does anyone know how to buy small quanities of mercury? I like making visually interesting things, and one of my projects I want to do involves mercury. But due to it's dangers, finding anyone that is willing to sell to an individual is pretty hard. I live in Berkeley CA so I thought I could find a chemical supply place locally, but no such luck so far. Also I don't need 99.999999% purity at $500 an ounce either, as it's just going to be used because it's shiny. I am aware of it's dangers and plan on sealing it air tight and am not going to be pouring any lefovers in the drain or putting it out in the trash. If I find enough, I'll be making something with a PIC to control it and will post pictures. :-) Thanks! -- Ian Smith http://www.ian.org

On Fri, 13 Jun 2008, Vitaliy wrote: > Paul Anderson wrote: > > It's expensive, though. One supplier I talked to wanted $1/ml. > > It's not *that* expensive ($30/oz), especially considering the proposed use. Thats still about $400 for 3 fluid oz which is a lot of it to be sure. I am having a little sucess finding small amounts of it and will just horde it until I have enough to do something interesting with. It gets thrown out and taken to disposal sites all the time. I should just hang out at one. "Hey buddy, can you spare a guy some mercury?" -- Ian Smith http://www.ian.org

piclist@ian.org wrote: >> It's not *that* expensive ($30/oz), especially considering the proposed >> use. > > Thats still about $400 for 3 fluid oz which is a lot of it to be sure. Wait, didn't Paul say $1/ml? 1 liquid oz = 29.6 ml, which makes the cost $29.6/oz. Unless Paul made a mistake. :) > I > am having a little sucess finding small amounts of it and will just horde > it until I have enough to do something interesting with. It gets thrown > out and taken to disposal sites all the time. I should just hang out at > one. "Hey buddy, can you spare a guy some mercury?" Ian, I now know what you're *really* up to -- you are trying to replicate the Michelson-Morley experiment! "Vibrations were further reduced by building the apparatus on top of a huge block of marble, which was then floated in a pool of mercury." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson-Morley_experiment Vitaliy

On Fri, 13 Jun 2008, Vitaliy wrote: > TakeThisOuTpiclistEraseMEspam_OUTian.org wrote: > >> It's not *that* expensive ($30/oz), especially considering the proposed > >> use. > > > > Thats still about $400 for 3 fluid oz which is a lot of it to be sure. > > Wait, didn't Paul say $1/ml? > > 1 liquid oz = 29.6 ml, which makes the cost $29.6/oz. Unless Paul made a > mistake. :) Now I'm confused. I went to the site... http://www.unitednuclear.com/chem.htm They list "2 ounce vial: $25.00" and I was assuming that was the weight ounces, not fluid ounces. They list some things in grams, some in ounces and some in fl oz. If the bottle weighgs 2 ounces, that is about 4ml of mercury which is far less than 2 fluid ounces. I guess I should write them and find out. Paul, do you have a URL for the $1/ml quote? Thanks! -- Ian Smith

On Sat, Jun 14, 2008 at 12:19 AM, <RemoveMEpiclistTakeThisOuTian.org> wrote: > > > Paul, do you have a URL for the $1/ml quote? Thanks! > Unfortunately, no. It was through a canadian company, Efston Science, that will order chemicals for it's customers. -- Paul Anderson VE3HOP wackyvorlonEraseME.....gmail.com http://www.oldschoolhacker.com QRP ARCI #13228, GQRP #12447

> Thats still about $400 for 3 fluid oz which is a lot of it > to be sure. I > am having a little sucess finding small amounts of it and > will just horde > it until I have enough to do something interesting with. > It gets thrown > out and taken to disposal sites all the time. I should > just hang out at > one. "Hey buddy, can you spare a guy some mercury?" Set up a battery disposal bin in a convenient location. Render down the mercury cells. Dump the rest in an "official" bin. Russell

> Ian, I now know what you're *really* up to -- you are > trying to replicate > the Michelson-Morley experiment! > > "Vibrations were further reduced by building the apparatus > on top of a huge > block of marble, which was then floated in a pool of > mercury." > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson-Morley_experiment Nah. He's trying to build a memory - he did say it was for use with a PIC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/vs-univac-mercury-memory.html http://www.maxmon.com/delay1.htm I have one in my 'museum' which uses a similar method but stores the data in a spiral of wire. Acoustic delay line memory. If you can't get enough Mercury for a memory you could try a CRT memory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube Then you can read it optically personally at the same time the computer (PIC) is accessing it. AND see its memory usage patterns to boot. And friends. Including a picture of Grace Hopper. We won't mention the COBOL manual. http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/display/2-1.htm#tube Variant of acoustic delay line memory half way down. . Russell

On Friday, June 13, 2008 4:49 PM [GMT-3=CET], EraseMEpiclistian.org wrote: > Strange request here. Does anyone know how to buy small quanities of > mercury? I like making visually interesting things, and one of my > Ian Smith Ask your dentist to gives you a sample in your next visit ;) ... my father is a dentist, an also my brother, all in law relatives,... btw, I've never ever went to a dentist! Zero cavities, good ph I think. Dennis

>This may be naïve on my part, but is there any form of Mercury other than >liquid? Well, when I was at secondary school I had a piece of solid mercury sitting on the tip of my finger for a few minutes. But then it had just come out of a liquid nitrogen container ... But I suspect the OP is attempting to distinguish what he wants from other compounds of mercury that come in powder form (I think mercury fulminate is one, but it is a component of some explosives IIRC).

On 6/14/08, Dennis Crawley <RemoveMEdennis.crawleyEraseMEEraseMEusa.net> wrote: > On Friday, June 13, 2008 4:49 PM [GMT-3=CET], > RemoveMEpiclistspam_OUTKILLspamian.org wrote: > > > Strange request here. Does anyone know how to buy small quanities of > > mercury? I like making visually interesting things, and one of my > > Ian Smith > > Ask your dentist to gives you a sample in your next visit ;) > > ... my father is a dentist, an also my brother, all in law relatives,... > btw, I've never ever went to a dentist! Zero cavities, good ph I think. You'll never see what you don't look for... ;-) -Adam -- EARTH DAY 2008 Tuesday April 22 Save Money * Save Oil * Save Lives * Save the Planet http://www.driveslowly.org

Red Mercury ? ;-) On 6/16/08, Alan B. Pearce <RemoveMEA.B.PearceTakeThisOuTspamrl.ac.uk> wrote: > >This may be naïve on my part, but is there any form of Mercury other than > >liquid? > > Well, when I was at secondary school I had a piece of solid mercury sitting > on the tip of my finger for a few minutes. > > But then it had just come out of a liquid nitrogen container ... > > But I suspect the OP is attempting to distinguish what he wants from other > compounds of mercury that come in powder form (I think mercury fulminate is > one, but it is a component of some explosives IIRC). > >

On Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 3:49 PM, <EraseMEpiclistspamspamBeGoneian.org> wrote: > Strange request here. Does anyone know how to buy small quanities of > mercury? I like making visually interesting things, and one of my > projects I want to do involves mercury. But due to it's dangers, finding > anyone that is willing to sell to an individual is pretty hard. > > Well, I just got off the phone with Efston Science. Regarding mercury, it appears that no one who supplies them has it available anymore. VWR will sell it to you, but you need to be an established customer. They won't sell to the general public. -- Paul Anderson VE3HOP RemoveMEwackyvorlonKILLspamgmail.com http://www.oldschoolhacker.com QRP ARCI #13228, GQRP #12447

On Mon, 16 Jun 2008, Alan B. Pearce wrote: > But I suspect the OP is attempting to distinguish what he wants from other > compounds of mercury that come in powder form (I think mercury fulminate is > one, but it is a component of some explosives IIRC). You are correct. I should have said "elemental" mercury I suppose. :-) Trying to clean the scum off dirty mercury is 'fun' too. Distilling it is simply insanity outside a fully equipped lab. Disolving the impurities with nitric acid is less insane, but still dangerous. Best method I can see is dripping it slowly through a tiny hole until all the impurities are contained in the final drop. -- Ian Smith http://www.ian.org

On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 3:08 PM, <piclistSTOPspamspam_OUTian.org> wrote: > > Trying to clean the scum off dirty mercury is 'fun' too. Distilling it is > simply insanity outside a fully equipped lab. Disolving the impurities > with nitric acid is less insane, but still dangerous. Best method I can > see is dripping it slowly through a tiny hole until all the impurities are > contained in the final drop. > > My father used to work on flow meters that relied on a fairly large volume of mercury, about 1 liter. He would take a cone-shaped coffee filter or filter paper, and cut the tip off. He would pour the mercury through this filter paper funnel, and the impurities would stick to the sides. -- Paul Anderson VE3HOP spamBeGonewackyvorlonSTOPspamEraseMEgmail.com http://www.oldschoolhacker.com QRP ARCI #13228, GQRP #12447

Alan B. Pearce wrote: >>Well, when I was at secondary school I had a piece of solid mercury >>sitting on the tip of my finger for a few minutes.<< When I was in elementary school, my cousing broke a thermometer and showed me how to make a (Soviet) copper penny into a shiny silver dime (he rubbed it in mercury with his fingers). A few years later, I witnessed a group of kids breaking fluorescent bulbs and rubbing pennies with the white powder. When I pointed out that mercury is toxic, and they really shouldn't be handling it, they gave me a lecture on how crazy they would have been to use mercury, and that the white powder wasn't mercury at all. :) Vitaliy

On Mon, 16 Jun 2008, Vitaliy wrote: > A few years later, I witnessed a group of kids breaking fluorescent bulbs > and rubbing pennies with the white powder. When I pointed out that mercury > is toxic, and they really shouldn't be handling it, they gave me a lecture > on how crazy they would have been to use mercury, and that the white powder > wasn't mercury at all. :) Is there ANYONE who has not touched or played with mercury as a kid? Even with all the information now I still run into people who say it's perfectly safe to play with it in your hands. I do think there is overreaction going on though. Mercury poisioning via coal plants and it building up in fish is a very nasty problem, but you don't have to drag your house to a toxic waste dump if you break a CF lamp. -- Ian Smith http://www.ian.org

On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 6:55 PM, <KILLspampiclistspamBeGoneian.org> wrote: > > I do think there is overreaction going on though. Mercury poisioning via > coal plants and it building up in fish is a very nasty problem, but you > don't have to drag your house to a toxic waste dump if you break a CF > lamp. > > The funny thing is that the mercury from these plants is most emphatically not the same as the mercury that people will play with. Pure mercury isn't nearly as toxic as organic mercury compounds, like methyl mercury. The biggest risk when handling pure mercury is from it evapourating, and inhaling the fumes. Truth is, gasoline is far more dangerous. It contains several known carcinogens which can be inhaled as vapour and absorbed through the skin. In reality, when pumping gasoline a wise person would wear a respirator, gloves and goggles. Mercury is a favourite to panic over, but we deal with chemicals that are far worse on a regular basis. People would be horrified to see jars of mercury at the hardware store, yet muriatic acid, drain cleaner and chlorine bleach are perfectly fine. -- Paul Anderson VE3HOP EraseMEwackyvorlonEraseMEgmail.com http://www.oldschoolhacker.com QRP ARCI #13228, GQRP #12447

> Is there ANYONE who has not touched or played with mercury > as a kid? Even > with all the information now I still run into people who > say it's > perfectly safe to play with it in your hands. 1. There's your source - dead fluro tubes - available for free all over. You could probably make an extractor that removes much of the powder in a single pass. Taking the ends off cleanly and rendering the end product safe left as an exercise for the student. 2. When I was very young (memories of AA Milne book title flit across hind brain) I bit a thermometer and swallowed the mercury. It appeared to do no harm, although some would say that ... . > I do think there is overreaction going on though. Mercury > poisioning via > coal plants and it building up in fish is a very nasty > problem, but you > don't have to drag your house to a toxic waste dump if you > break a CF > lamp. The cleanup suggestions for a CFL breakage seem extreme to me. However, as they must be written to cover all levels of experience and general competence I guess an "Osborne 0 of CFL breakage" is appropriate :-) Russell

I've been contacted privately by a member of the Piclist who opened my eyes to what I was doing in posting the quoted message below. I thought people would see the light side of it; a friend of mine took the mercury from chemistry in school when we were 16 and he still has it in his drawer at home. Typical teenager thing to do, you know. I hope people don't see it as anything more sinister, i.e. enticing people to buy stolen goods. Offer still stands though, I'll say it to my mate and see if he wants to get rid of it for a bit of dosh. Tomás Ó hÉilidhe wrote: > Anyone looking for Mercury in Ireland, let me know. A mate of mine > swiped it from school about a decade ago, still has it in his drawer. > I'd say the volume is somewhere near 100 ml or so. I'm sure it's more of > a souvenir than anything to him now, but if the price's right...

Apptech wrote: > 1. There's your source - dead fluro tubes - available for > free all over. You could probably make an extractor that > removes much of the powder in a single pass. Taking the ends > off cleanly and rendering the end product safe left as an > exercise for the student. Those were old, Soviet-era tubes. Modern fluorescents have very little mercury, and the tubes you're likely to find at the dump may even have none: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_lamp#Loss_of_mercury > 2. When I was very young (memories of AA Milne book title > flit across hind brain) I bit a thermometer and swallowed > the mercury. It appeared to do no harm, although some would > say that ... . Oh yeah, that certainly explains certain things, like your tendency to... no, Russell, I'd say that you have suffered absolutely no ill effects. ;-) I remember reading somewhere that in the olden times patients suffering from twisted bowels were made to drink a pint of mercury to straighten them out. I'm curious if there are any records of what happened to these patients. There's no doubt that mercury poisoning is real, but I think it takes more than a single exposure to get a harmful dose. Vitaliy

Vitaliy wrote: > Apptech wrote: > > Oh yeah, that certainly explains certain things, like your tendency to... > no, Russell, I'd say that you have suffered absolutely no ill effects. ;-) > > I remember reading somewhere that in the olden times patients suffering from > twisted bowels were made to drink a pint of mercury to straighten them out. > I'm curious if there are any records of what happened to these patients. > > There's no doubt that mercury poisoning is real, but I think it takes more > than a single exposure to get a harmful dose. > > Vitaliy > > Mad as a hatter, 'e wuz, guvnor, mad as a hatter!

{Quote hidden}> Vitaliy wrote: >> Apptech wrote: >> >> Oh yeah, that certainly explains certain things, like >> your tendency to... >> no, Russell, I'd say that you have suffered absolutely no >> ill effects. ;-) >> I remember reading somewhere that in the olden times >> patients suffering from >> twisted bowels were made to drink a pint of mercury to >> straighten them out. >> I'm curious if there are any records of what happened to >> these patients. >> >> There's no doubt that mercury poisoning is real, but I >> think it takes more >> than a single exposure to get a harmful dose. > Mad as a hatter, 'e wuz, guvnor, mad as a hatter! For those who miss Marcel's allusion. Hat makers, aka "Hatters" used to employ mercury in the felting process whereby threads of wool etc are made into a continuous sheet. So mercury poisoning was a trade hazard and hatters often "went mad" as a consequence - hence the phrase "mad as a hatter". Russell

On Jun 16, 2008, at 9:05 PM, Apptech wrote: > Reportedly even the "best" CFLs have some mercury. 10 to 20 > mg comes to mind. There was quite a bit of discussion as a result of my "take apart a CFL" "instructable" (http://www.instructables.com/id/Take-apart-a- Compact-Fluorescent-Bulb/ ); see the comments. I dunno if any of the number were authoritative, and I wasn't really interested in chasing down competing links when MY whole point was "don't break the glass", but the number thrown around most was "under 5mg per bulb." BillW

Apptech wrote: >> Those were old, Soviet-era tubes. Modern fluorescents have >> very little >> mercury, and the tubes you're likely to find at the dump >> may even have none: >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_lamp#Loss_of_mercury > > > Reportedly even the "best" CFLs have some mercury. 10 to 20 > mg comes to mind. You like to muddy the waters, Russell! :) How many CFLs would the OP have to extract the mercury from, to obtain the amount he needs (several fl oz)? As far as he's concerned, CFLs and most modern FLs have *zero* mercury content. :) Vitaliy

>Trying to clean the scum off dirty mercury is 'fun' too. Distilling >it is simply insanity outside a fully equipped lab. Disolving the >impurities with nitric acid is less insane, but still dangerous. >Best method I can see is dripping it slowly through a tiny hole >until all the impurities are contained in the final drop. I thought that folks using mercury to get gold out of minerals had this down to a fine art. You heat it so the mercury fumes off, and bubble the fumes through water to condense them. You end up with a bubble of mercury under the water.

>> Reportedly even the "best" CFLs have some mercury. 10 to >> 20 >> mg comes to mind. > You like to muddy the waters, Russell! :) I was *seeking* to assist and inform :-) ____________________ DAMAR. Straight. Some http://damarww.net/common/msds/Fluorescent-MSDS.pdf Philips MSDS CFL 0.02% http://www.nam.lighting.philips.com/us/ecatalog/msds/s08-93005.pdf Philips linear 0.01% http://www.nofs.navy.mil/about_NOFS/staff/cbl/LPSnet/FL-MSDS.pdf Philips linear < 0.01% http://www.nam.lighting.philips.com/us/ecatalog/msds/s06-96001.pdf Mercury Quick Silver death Lots and lots and lots of good rubbish http://www.home-air-purifier-expert.com/mercury-msds.html GE Fluro generally Small 25% of old not small. http://www.geconsumerandindustrial.com/environmentalinfo/documents/msds/msds_fluorescent_lamps.pdf Full Spectrum linear low mercury < 20 ppm http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/MSDS-Maxum.htm MIT environment / disposal http://web.mit.edu/environment/ehs/topic/haz_waste_faq.html Oklahoma regulatory - non hazardous at < 0.2 mg/l http://www.deq.state.ok.us/factsheets/land/MgtUsedFluoreLamps.pdf Russell > How many CFLs would the OP have to extract the mercury > from, to obtain the > amount he needs (several fl oz)? As far as he's concerned, > CFLs and most > modern FLs have *zero* mercury content. :) > > Vitaliy > > --

>The biggest risk when handling pure mercury is from >it evapourating, and inhaling the fumes. I still think about the time when I was a lab boy in the physics lab during my last year at secondary school. One of the science teachers wanted a demonstration of electromagnetism in wires. She wanted to hang a couple of wires from test tube stands into a bowl of mercury, and run a current through them so that the first year students could see the wires move together or apart depending on the relative current direction. So here is Yours Truly dipping wires into the mercury bath, to turn on the current from a 6V motor bike battery, with the only current limiting being the resistance of the mercury bath. As you can imagine the wire drew a spark on make and break, and sometimes the bottom of the suspended wires did as well, all creating little puffs of mercury vapour, no face mask, no fume cupboard, no eye protection ... Still here 40 years later though ...

> The biggest risk when handling pure mercury is from > it evapourating, and inhaling the fumes. Back when I was a chemist, a girl in our lab had a propensity for breaking thermometers in the small controlled-environment room. Or "Janice's Death Chamber" as it was known. Even with a pocketful of stainless steel spatulas and glass rods she'd still rather use a fragile thermometer as a stirrer. I've got a couple of ml of sweepings in a vial from those days

>> You heat it so the mercury fumes off, and bubble the >> fumes >> through water to condense them. You end up with a bubble >> of mercury under the water > All the rage on the banks of South American rivers. Still > more > likely in a Hemingway novel than recovering mercury from > an > intestine straightening. Wow, there's a job description According to Josephus, Jews escaping from Jerusalem in 70 AD before the city was taken and the temple razed, were found by non-Jewish locals (Roman-camp camp followers) to be sorting through excrement to recover jewels that they had swallowed before fleeing. Subsequently all escapees were disembowelled to recover whatever 'treasure' they may have swallowed for a while until the Romans managed to stop it happening. Those attempting to flee the city were killed as traitors by local management if possible. Those who did escape had to run the gauntlet to safety. Most in the city were massacred when the Temple (a superb fortress in its own right) was overrun. R

On Tue, 17 Jun 2008, Apptech wrote: > 2. When I was very young (memories of AA Milne book title > flit across hind brain) I bit a thermometer and swallowed > the mercury. It appeared to do no harm, although some would > say that ... . Luckily the biggest risk is inhaling the fumes which go right into the bloodstream. Swallowing it is actually safer than breathing it, go figure. Plutonium and many other radioactives are similar. If you ate some plutonium you would end up dying from it's chemical toxicity but not be too harmed otherwise. :-) There was a recorded case of a worker swallowing a pellet of Am-232 at a factory that makes smoke detectors. Passed through intact and was just fine. What I want to know is HOW do you do that by accident? -- Ian Smith http://www.ian.org

Quoting @spam@piclist@spam@spam_OUTian.org: > On Tue, 17 Jun 2008, Apptech wrote: >> 2. When I was very young (memories of AA Milne book title >> flit across hind brain) I bit a thermometer and swallowed >> the mercury. It appeared to do no harm, although some would >> say that ... . > > Luckily the biggest risk is inhaling the fumes which go right into the > bloodstream. Swallowing it is actually safer than breathing it, go > figure. There was a case of a person who attempted suicide by injecting Hg into directly into a vein. It simply pooled and did not kill them, at least not very quickly: http://www.circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/91/12/3020 Best regards, Spehro Pefhany -- "it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" spamBeGones...KILLspaminterlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

> Pure mercury isn't nearly as toxic as organic mercury compounds, > like methyl mercury That's when many elements/compounds are dangerous, when they're fat-soluble How about these two guys - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10517279 I feel a little sympathetic, apart from "This person warned the engineers that it was a hazardous substance they were letting off, however they didn't take much notice of this warning" I'm sure you could pick on just about anyone and dob them for something they did/are doing