Mercury

[Jamesy]

The stuff you find in people's garages.

Kinda starts 40 years ago, when my mum and sister used to play with the Mercury my grandad randomly brought home one day from what is now Bayer Crop Science in Norwich.

Mum had completely forgotten about it until he died, and after a length legal time since his will was kinda screwy we finally found the house was ours and began clearing it out.

Until we got to the hell hole that is the garry. 40 years worth of stuff from a guy who never threw a thing out in his life. I think the urn still stuck at the crematorium (stil will issues :P) jumped in the air a bit when we got the skip in and began chucking.

Dad found this bottle on the shelf. It was bloody heavy - around 6KG. Mum instantly recognised it and that's how we came to own 6kg of a substance no government body wants to touch.

Luckily Cromer highschool are taking it :D


oh, and a picture:

http://shizzlenizzle.biz/images/crazy/mercury.png

[cocaine]

isnt that stuff like poisonous? haha.

a thermometer smashed on my desk in chemistry and my teacher completely flipped and dragged me over to the sink :S lmao.

[Jamesy]

Yeah it's very toxic.

hmm, 30 seconds in the open air isn't gunna gave me this is it?


In humans, approximately 80% of inhaled mercury vapor is absorbed via the respiratory tract where it enters the circulatory system and is distributed throughout the body.[15] Chronic exposure by inhalation, even at low concentrations in the range 0.7–42 μg/m3, has been shown in case control studies to cause effects such as tremors, impaired cognitive skills, and sleep disturbance in workers.

[N!ck]

Just don't stick your nose over the container and yuou should be fine.

[LoveToStack]

So long as you don't breath it in you should be ok. I've heard rumours that people used to eat it to cure an upset stomach, don't hold me to it, but they died if they inhaled the fumes.

[Jamesy]

ah that's good :)

Would be just my lucky to get brain damage before my looming exams :P

[Corporal]

So long as you don't breath it in you should be ok. I've heard rumours that people used to eat it to cure an upset stomach, don't hold me to it, but they died if they inhaled the fumes.
They used to use it in tooth fillings at one point

[jimi]

is it the cup tht is heavy or the mercury?

[N!ck]

is it the cup tht is heavy or the mercury?

It is over 13.5 times heavier than the same amount of water. It's even heavier than lead. The container probably adds a fair bit as well though

[jimi]

any other intresting things found?

[GommeInc]

I've got an old maze puzzle which uses mercury instead of a ball/pellet. Weren't the olden days innocent, when playing with any odd poisonous material was seen as fun and carefree? :D

[tdi]

I've got an old maze puzzle which uses mercury instead of a ball/pellet. Weren't the olden days innocent, when playing with any odd poisonous material was seen as fun and carefree? :D
haha, i have one too. is it a round one? :)

[Jamesy]

is it the cup tht is heavy or the mercury?
The entire bottle (white plastic thing) is 6KG. That was a tiny amount in the cup, obviously you don't want to pour the whole lot out.


any other intresting things found?
Nah, he mainly had crap in there.

[GommeInc]

haha, i have one too. is it a round one? :)
I think so yeah, it's in the end room so can't be bothered to get up and walk all that way :P It's more fun to play with than the common ball pellet one :P


The entire bottle (white plastic thing) is 6KG. That was a tiny amount in the cup, obviously you don't want to pour the whole lot out.
That must be a pretty big bottle if the bottle alone weighs 6kg :S