Penny Question

LOL. Very true! On our way to buy take-out Chinese one evening, with my wife driving, I said "I'm going to jot down the 10 dumbest/most dangerous things I've done." By the time we got to the restaurant, I was on #19! I'm now over #50.
Steve

 

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I've done some really stupid stuff as well.

I think everybody did this one but I had a 1960 Fiat which had a "throttle". For the young one's, the throttle was a rudimentary "cruise control".
At any rate on "Blood Alley" as highway 101 between Morgan Hill and San Jose was known back in the 60's, I'd set the throttle then climb over into the passenger bucket seat with my left hand on the wheel. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

It's the stupid stuff that goes just right which allowed us idiots to survive. Had I experienced a blow out while pulling the little trick, I wouldn't be here today.

In that same car, which was a "4 on the floor", I had a broken right arm which didn't prevent me from steering and shifting with my left arm!

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, could have easily turned into Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum.

We won't even talk about Highway 9 over to Santa Cruz.............

 

50 reasons (and counting) why I feel grateful and blessed this Christmas to be alive and mostly in one (though arthritic) piece. During college 6 females and I were sent to Norway to study one summer. I dislocated my shoulder the day before I left. When we got to Luxembourg none of them would drive (1969, you know, males were to be in charge, make decisions) even though my left arm was bound to my side. Drove a Volkswagen van through Austria and Switzerland by holding the wheel with my knee while I shifted. Sometimes had a half-liter of beer between my legs also. Chopin's Funeral March, which I believe you "quoted" could often have been my theme song. Sorry, everyone, for this digression.

 

Well it really isn't that dangerous. There are a lot of things people use or do every day that are a lot more dangerous than Mercury. I wouldn't recommend drinking it (Aand even that may not be too hazardous because I don't believe mercury reacts that much with hydrochloric acid, stomach acid, so it might just pass through. Or boiling it and breathing in the fumes, but other than that elemental mercury is fairly benign.

Back when they first began freaking out over lead in paint and they banned it in paint in homes, it was replaced with latex paint. The problem was the latex paint had a tendency to develop mold. So as an anti-fungicide they added mercury to the paint. And over time the mercury DOES out gas out of the paint so people in the homes end up breathing mercury fumes, but they were safe from the lead (which was only a problem if you sanded the paint or ate paint chips.)

 

Don't stick paper clips into those holes in the wall.

 

Or an automobile:

 

Yea that 1974 penny is in pretty much uncirculated condition, that's why its so shiny.

I will see the coin tomorrow evening but thank you for all your replies.

 

Yeah, I used to love playing with mercury whenever I encountered it as a kid. The college I teach at is trashing out a lot of chemicals and one of them is a little container of mercury...I want it, I want it, I want it...although I have no idea what I would do with it. Most chemicals and elements are somewhat misunderstood outside of the chemical establishment (and often inside). Metallic mercury is not readily absorbed by the body. Mercury compounds are a different beastie. An old story that probably most people have heard is about the phrase "Mad as a hatter" and how it had to do with mercury poisoning in people who worked in the hat making industry due to the mercury used in top hat manufacturing. I used to wonder how the heck that worked and finally researched it. Top hats were (and probably are) made of felt from animal hair. The most prized hair was beaver, that's why those old mountain men like Jim Bridger used to go our and shoot beavers (any old-timers remember an alternative meaning for that?). Beaver hairs had hooks on them that caused the hair to entangle and make a strong, water-proof felt. Great, but that made them expensive, much cheaper and softer was rabbit hair, but that would not make a strong felt. Someone found out that rabbit hair, when treated with mercury chloride would split and the resulting splits would cause it to entangle and make a strong felt. So picture this in an old-world hat making establishment...tubs of mercury chloride solution have great gobs of rabbit hair soaking, workers dip out dripping armloads of this mush and carry it over to tables where they flatten it out to be dried and cut out for hat shapes. Spending day after day soaked in mercury chloride didn't do good things for the nervous systems of the workers and they developed some really horrible conditions.

 

They also used heat to dry the felt driving the mercury out in the form of fumes that the workers would breathe in.

 

But there was no metallic mercury involved.

 

Ah, man. Makes me wonder, even with a plethora of government agencies "protecting" us, what current manufacturing processes and which chemicals we are using in our homes, our gardens and fields, will be found to be hazardous down the road.

 

I'm more worried about the people who want to adulterate powdered milk with chalk. Chemistry has a lot better handle on things than it did decades ago, and there can't be too many ongoing lethal vectors out there any more. Everyone's analyzing everything these days and looking to become famous for it.

 

Sandy Hook as an example.......

 

True but mercury chloride fumes/vapors would be even worse.

 

and a car?....

 

Sorry for being a nitpick, but the vapor pressure (amount that would get into the gas phase) for ionic compounds like mercury chloride is essentially non-existent. Now in refineries of merallic mercury, you are 100% correct. If the mercury chloride is in powder form when being dissolved, that could provide some really toxic dust.