Anyone collect mercury?

I wanted mercury since earliest childhood, when the "chemical magic" and "science fun" books were full of experiments that called for it. About the time I got enough disposable income to think about laying some in, it became effectively impossible to buy or sell.

It's dangerous, in insidious ways. The regulations that have been imposed at various levels are not "overreaching", at least not in my opinion. But it's a terrible shame, because the stuff is so darn useful. Relatively cheap, relatively inert, conductive, dense, non-sticky -- we can come up with substitutes that have some of these characteristics, but only a couple at a time.

For example, I made a bit of gallium-indium alloy that's pretty non-toxic and stays liquid well below room temperature. But it sticks to glass and plastic like crazy, and it forms a nasty skin of oxide that ruins it for many applications. And it costs close to a buck a GRAM.

 

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There is probably a lot of mercury in your community that you could get your hands on if you really wanted some. Organizations in the medical community are currently phasing out the old mercury based sphygmometers (blood pressure gauges) for electronic ones. I think we have gotten rid of most of ours, but many other providers in the community haven't.

The key would be convincing them that you'd be responsible in using it and disposing of it.

I think there's about 1/4 cup of mercury in each one...

 

There have been stories that people buying gold from swiss sources have found high amounts of mercury in it because this gold came from the dental fillings of dead Jews killed by the Nazi. They would pull the fillings after the Zyclon B gas had done it's job but before sending them into the oven. These fillings were then melted down into bullion and much of it was deposited in Switzerland who was a willing banker and didn't ask questions. Obviously later after the Nazi were gone, the Swiss began selling this gold.

 

Gold melts at 1947 deg.F., but mercury boils at 674 deg.F. If they melted the gold into bars or such, all of the mercury would have boiled away before that. IMO.

 

your forgetting 2 things...fatima is always right and in fatima's world banksters banksters banksters..no bank or banker is ever honest and will only try to commit crimes against humanity and never have any ethics...

 

The mercury would have cooled at some point. I wonder if it perhaps lightly coated the gold when it cooled to an acceptable temperature.

 

fatima is not always right, I have actually read a post or two of his. Moreover, he was not right when it came to his argument regarding ASE's and legal tender.

 

I know he's not right....and you know he's not right...but try to convince him that....:dead-horse:

 

I do not think I could speak or type sufficient words to accomplish such a task.

 

My chemistry tells me that once an alloy is formed, it's not separated back to its component parts if remelted. That would take some refining steps.

 

so how do smelters make gold .999 fine or .9999 fine? there's gotta be a way to seperate gold from the other metals in it that make it less then pure...

 

Yes, when the mercury cooled below its boiling point it would condense back into a liquid, but probably on the walls of the room it was being done. Smelters which used mercury to separate/concentrate gold and then boil it off, used vents and condensers ( like the alcohol stills ) to both keep it from worker's air and to return it to liquid form for reuse.

One of the most frightening nights at my Gem and Mineral Society's "Gold group meeting" was a commercial video demonstrating how to use mercury in your panning concentrates to pick up the gold and then boil the mercury into the air from a large cast iron skillet on a propane BBQ burner unit. He did use "safety" technique of leaning to the side as he talked about what he was doing so the mercury vapors (cooled to microscopic drops) inthe air couldn't enter his lungs. I did stand up after it was over and explained the errors. Luckily no one there had any mercury.

 

I have seen programs where mercury was used because the impurities would stick to the mercury, thus leaving the gold.

PS It appears from desertgem, just switch what I said - the gold sticks to the mercury and then the mercury is later boiled off.

 

Considering this was wartime, I'd say there would be a good chance this vapor would have been allowed to condense back into the gold. Most of the institutional executions came later in the war and access to specialized equipment, I would assume, would have been in short supply. That would explain the high content of mercury in some Swiss francs. The fact that the Swiss ended up with dental gold from Nazi Germany is well documented.

 

fatima's right you know. :yes:

 

Until you can come up with something better than "fatima's right you know", to address something I've posted, then yes indeed. Assume I'm your Daddy and Father Knows Best.

 

Most chemistry classes mention alloys as rearrangement of the metals used into a different crystal structure than either one separately. This is why alloys generally have different physical characteristics than either separately, such as melting points, hardness, etc. Amalgams are when one substance such as mercury dissolves into (another) such as gold and retains it characteristics fairly closely, such as boiling point differences.

p.s. added. Mercury also makes amalgams with sulfur crystals ( flour,flower) and that is why some mercury "hazmat" supplies are absorbent fibers coated with sulfur.

 

all the proof in the world would not convince you of anything other then that you already believe to be the truth

 

Are you here to insult me or discuss bullion? Your actions suggest the former. If you think I'm breaking rules, then please report me to the forum staff. If you have an issue with me, then man up and address it via DM. Otherwise, I ask that you not destroy these conversations with such off-topic and against the rules remarks.

 

So is it possible that if the fillings were tossed in a mold and into a wartime furnace, the mercury could end up back into the gold?