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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Kentucky, post: 2302936, member: 33176&quot;]Yeah, I used to love playing with mercury whenever I encountered it as a kid.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Most chemicals and elements are somewhat misunderstood outside of the chemical establishment (and often inside).&nbsp; Metallic mercury is not readily absorbed by the body.&nbsp; Mercury compounds are a different beastie.&nbsp; An old story that probably most people have heard is about the phrase &quot;Mad as a hatter&quot; 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.&nbsp; I used to wonder how the heck that worked and finally researched it.&nbsp; Top hats were (and probably are) made of felt from animal hair.&nbsp; The most prized hair was beaver, that&#039;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?).&nbsp; Beaver hairs had hooks on them that caused the hair to entangle and make a strong, water-proof felt.&nbsp; Great, but that made them expensive, much cheaper and softer was rabbit hair, but that would not make a strong felt.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Spending day after day soaked in mercury chloride didn&#039;t do good things for the nervous systems of the workers and they developed some really horrible conditions.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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