My house and rental had mercury thermostats until I replaced them in about 2008.? I save all the mercury I come across.? Why?? it's just interesting and I want to keep in out of the landfills.??
-Dave
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 11:01:22 AM PDT, Scott B <sbilotta@...> wrote:
IIRC, years ago household ¡°silent¡± light switches were mercury switches.? That would be the Avanti era, the 1960s. ?
?
From: [email protected] < [email protected]> On Behalf Of
Charles Kinzer
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2024 10:10 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Unimat] Mercury on the Loose
?
Yes.? That's exactly what's in my 1964 Studebaker Avanti.? A mercury switch also used to be commonly used in household thermostats,? It was attached to a bi metal coil that
expanded and contracted with heat and tilted the switch to turn the heater on and off.? I think all such applications are now banned..
On a related note, when about 10 years old a friend had a little vial of mercury.? He showed me you could keep rubbing and rubbing a drop of it on a penny and mercury would
bond to the surface in a very thin film making the penny look silver.? So, of course, I did that to one myself.? Maybe this is a reason why it is also called "quicksilver."? Perhaps that is also the reason I make misspellings today.
Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 09:43:58 AM PDT, Jkle379184 via groups.io <jkle379184@...> wrote:
I am old enough to remember when cars used Mercury switch under the hood and in the trunk. When you would lift them up the Mercury moved to the end of a vail and
made contact. And the lights would go on.
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 12:10:49 PM EDT, pat goodyear <pgoodyear@...> wrote:
So 30+ years ago we rearranged our Instrument Shop, clean everything out toss and replace with new stuff.? ?One of the items was a quart plastic bottle about
half full of mercury recovered from broken thermometers and switches etc.? Several instruments and control devices used mercury switches.? ?Anyhow we are talking a pint or more of pure mercury.? ? It was set aside for disposal and someone just threw it into
a dumpster, the weight alone should have cued them in.? ?We never found it.? ?
On another note: My older brother decided to metal detect an area where a gold smelter used to be, he found a large pool of mercury in the bottom of the creek,
beneath the soil, he left it be.? ??
In the hills near where I live on the California central coast there are several marked mercury mines.? ??
|
?I have a antique Sun lamp on a roller pedestal. It has a huge bulb that has at least a tablespoon of mercury in it. It still works and when it is on the mercury vaporizes, The base is one huge transformer. It was a estate sale fine for $5.00. I read that all fluorescent lights are black lights, that it is the white powder inside that makes them not UV. And Tesla invented them. ?Jeff
A few years ago, at our local high school in California, a student was expelled because a plastic knife was found in his car in the school parking lot which he used to put peanut butter and jam on bread to make a sandwich - School administration said it was because of "zero tolerance".
Back in high school (68 - 72) I was one of the science lab assistants. While the instructor was teaching, if we weren't needed, we would be in the back room doing things like trying to make our own UV lamp by heating a glass tube to melt an electrode into the end, pulling a vacuum and filling it with mercury vapor from a vial of mercury which we heated. We then heated the other end of the glass tube and added another electrode. After we were done we hooked the lamp we created to a 15K neon sign transformer to test it. All this without safety equipment...
We had such freedom to explore, I'm surprised any of our generation survived.
-- ? ?? Richard
"The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine." ~
John Howard
|
Haha!? I was going to mention that, but figured no one would get the reference; I should have known better!
-Dave
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 07:28:38 AM PDT, Herman de Leeuw via groups.io <herman.deleeuw@...> wrote:
Yet another blast from the past - Graham Parker is best placed to tell what is all about?
Op 17-07-2024 16:02 CEST schreef Bill in OKC too via groups.io <wmrmeyers@...>:
?
?
My kids finished high school over a decade ago. Their high school was teaching the biology classes in the old Chemistry lab. Soapstone bench tops, deep sinks, and gas ports for Bunsen burners... But not a microscope in the class room. No dissections, just bookwork and worksheets. I was President of the PTSA at the time. Which was a complete and total waste of time.?
?
Bill in OKC
?
William R. Meyers, MSgt, USAF(Ret.)
?
Aphorisms to live by:
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.?
SEMPER GUMBY!
Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.
Physics doesn't care about your schedule.
The only reason I know anything is because I've done it wrong enough times to START to know better.
Expect in one hand, expectorate in the other. See which one gets full first.
?
?
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 08:45:10 AM CDT, Peter Brooks <peter@...> wrote:
?
?
Blimey, this is all a blast from the past.
?
Litihum ¡®dancing¡¯ on water. Burning magnesium ribbon. Bunsen burners! ?It¡¯s a wonder we survived unscathed. I think H&S may be quite different today in school labs.
?
The end of our chemistry teacher¡¯s nose was neatly squared off, the result (us kids believed) of an explosion. How it neatly took the end of his nose off without further damage I don¡¯t know¡ of course we didn¡¯t consider that then.
|
I have an unused mercury switch and it's printed cardboard box from my grandfather.? He was a bike cop in Oakland CA in the 1930s and one of his fellow bike Officers went down and the bike drive chain tore up his leg.? My grandfather designed and patented this mercury switch to shut off the engine if the bike was laid down.? I don't think he ever made any $$ off of it, as the patent was probably easily circumvented....
-Guy Winton-??
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 11:13:43 AM PDT, Martin Potter VE3OAT <ve3oat@...> wrote:
Jeff wrote :
"I have a mercury vacuum gage that is made to synchronize
carburetors on motorcycles up to 4 cylinders. And yes it still works
and I still use it."?
Jeff, I am envious.? I used to have an MGB sports car with twin
semi-downdrought SU carburreters and I used to balance them with a
bit of Tygon tubing and my ear.? That always seemed to work OK, but
still I wondered ...?
Wish I had had my DB200 lathe back then, too.
... Martin
|
Jeff wrote :
"I have a mercury vacuum gage that is made to synchronize
carburetors on motorcycles up to 4 cylinders. And yes it still works
and I still use it."?
Jeff, I am envious.? I used to have an MGB sports car with twin
semi-downdrought SU carburreters and I used to balance them with a
bit of Tygon tubing and my ear.? That always seemed to work OK, but
still I wondered ...?
Wish I had had my DB200 lathe back then, too.
... Martin
|
IIRC, years ago household ¡°silent¡± light switches were mercury switches.? That would be the Avanti era, the 1960s. ?
?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: [email protected] < [email protected]> On Behalf Of
Charles Kinzer
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2024 10:10 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Unimat] Mercury on the Loose
?
Yes.? That's exactly what's in my 1964 Studebaker Avanti.? A mercury switch also used to be commonly used in household thermostats,? It was attached to a bi metal coil that
expanded and contracted with heat and tilted the switch to turn the heater on and off.? I think all such applications are now banned..
On a related note, when about 10 years old a friend had a little vial of mercury.? He showed me you could keep rubbing and rubbing a drop of it on a penny and mercury would
bond to the surface in a very thin film making the penny look silver.? So, of course, I did that to one myself.? Maybe this is a reason why it is also called "quicksilver."? Perhaps that is also the reason I make misspellings today.
Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 09:43:58 AM PDT, Jkle379184 via groups.io <jkle379184@...> wrote:
I am old enough to remember when cars used Mercury switch under the hood and in the trunk. When you would lift them up the Mercury moved to the end of a vail and
made contact. And the lights would go on.
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 12:10:49 PM EDT, pat goodyear <pgoodyear@...> wrote:
So 30+ years ago we rearranged our Instrument Shop, clean everything out toss and replace with new stuff.? ?One of the items was a quart plastic bottle about
half full of mercury recovered from broken thermometers and switches etc.? Several instruments and control devices used mercury switches.? ?Anyhow we are talking a pint or more of pure mercury.? ? It was set aside for disposal and someone just threw it into
a dumpster, the weight alone should have cued them in.? ?We never found it.? ?
On another note: My older brother decided to metal detect an area where a gold smelter used to be, he found a large pool of mercury in the bottom of the creek,
beneath the soil, he left it be.? ??
In the hills near where I live on the California central coast there are several marked mercury mines.? ??
|
A few years ago, at our local high school in California, a student was expelled because a plastic knife was found in his car in the school parking lot which he used to put peanut butter and jam on bread to make a sandwich - School administration said it was because of "zero tolerance".
Back in high school (68 - 72) I was one of the science lab assistants. While the instructor was teaching, if we weren't needed, we would be in the back room doing things like trying to make our own UV lamp by heating a glass tube to melt an electrode into the end, pulling a vacuum and filling it with mercury vapor from a vial of mercury which we heated. We then heated the other end of the glass tube and added another electrode. After we were done we hooked the lamp we created to a 15K neon sign transformer to test it. All this without safety equipment...
We had such freedom to explore, I'm surprised any of our generation survived.
-- ? ?? Richard
"The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine." ~
John Howard
|
Yes.? That's exactly what's in my 1964 Studebaker Avanti.? A mercury switch also used to be commonly used in household thermostats,? It was attached to a bi metal coil that expanded and contracted with heat and tilted the switch to turn the heater on and off.? I think all such applications are now banned..
On a related note, when about 10 years old a friend had a little vial of mercury.? He showed me you could keep rubbing and rubbing a drop of it on a penny and mercury would bond to the surface in a very thin film making the penny look silver.? So, of course, I did that to one myself.? Maybe this is a reason why it is also called "quicksilver."? Perhaps that is also the reason I make misspellings today.
Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 09:43:58 AM PDT, Jkle379184 via groups.io <jkle379184@...> wrote:
I am old enough to remember when cars used Mercury switch under the hood and in the trunk. When you would lift them up the Mercury moved to the end of a vail and made contact. And the lights would go on. ?Jeff
So 30+ years ago we rearranged our Instrument Shop, clean everything out toss and replace with new stuff.? ?One of the items was a quart plastic bottle about half full of mercury recovered from broken thermometers and switches etc.? Several instruments and control devices used mercury switches.? ?Anyhow we are talking a pint or more of pure mercury.? ? It was set aside for disposal and someone just threw it into a dumpster, the weight alone should have cued them in.? ?We never found it.? ?
?
On another note: My older brother decided to metal detect an area where a gold smelter used to be, he found a large pool of mercury in the bottom of the creek, beneath the soil, he left it be.? ??
?
In the hills near where I live on the California central coast there are several marked mercury mines.? ??
?
?
?
|
My wife graduated in the mid 1970's. She was captain of the girls rifle team. Some of the team would bring their own guns in and keep them in their lockers, with ammo. My dad used to tell us when he was a kid, he would ride the bus over the river from one side of town to the next to go duck hunting. 12 gage by his side. No one panicked, he said all they wanted to know was how was the hunting. Try that today. ?Jeff
52 years ago in my high school Advanced Physics class, we fired a rifle bullet into a block of wood for a conservation of momentum experiment.? This was done in the classroom, and I brought the rifle and ammo to school on the bus.? What would be the results of that experiment today, everybody in the class expelled and the teacher fired?
?
Don
|
I am old enough to remember when cars used Mercury switch under the hood and in the trunk. When you would lift them up the Mercury moved to the end of a vail and made contact. And the lights would go on. ?Jeff
So 30+ years ago we rearranged our Instrument Shop, clean everything out toss and replace with new stuff.? ?One of the items was a quart plastic bottle about half full of mercury recovered from broken thermometers and switches etc.? Several instruments and control devices used mercury switches.? ?Anyhow we are talking a pint or more of pure mercury.? ? It was set aside for disposal and someone just threw it into a dumpster, the weight alone should have cued them in.? ?We never found it.? ?
?
On another note: My older brother decided to metal detect an area where a gold smelter used to be, he found a large pool of mercury in the bottom of the creek, beneath the soil, he left it be.? ??
?
In the hills near where I live on the California central coast there are several marked mercury mines.? ??
?
?
?
|
So 30+ years ago we rearranged our Instrument Shop, clean everything out toss and replace with new stuff.? ?One of the items was a quart plastic bottle about half full of mercury recovered from broken thermometers and switches etc.? Several instruments and control devices used mercury switches.? ?Anyhow we are talking a pint or more of pure mercury.? ? It was set aside for disposal and someone just threw it into a dumpster, the weight alone should have cued them in.? ?We never found it.? ?
?
On another note: My older brother decided to metal detect an area where a gold smelter used to be, he found a large pool of mercury in the bottom of the creek, beneath the soil, he left it be.? ??
?
In the hills near where I live on the California central coast there are several marked mercury mines.? ??
?
?
?
|
52 years ago in my high school Advanced Physics class, we fired a rifle bullet into a block of wood for a conservation of momentum experiment.? This was done in the classroom, and I brought the rifle and ammo to school on the bus.? What would be the results of that experiment today, everybody in the class expelled and the teacher fired?
?
Don
|
Don't forget the smell of formaldehyde, the feeling of a scalpel in your hand and pricking your finger to get a drop of blood for blood typing. And also "experimenting" with components in electronics class when the teacher wasn't looking (electrolytic capacitors and NE2 neon bulbs explode nicely when hooked up to the mains).
On Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 7:02?AM Bill in OKC too via <wmrmeyers= [email protected]> wrote: My kids finished high school over a decade ago. Their high school was teaching the biology classes in the old Chemistry lab. Soapstone bench tops, deep sinks, and gas ports for Bunsen burners... But not a microscope in the class room. No dissections, just bookwork and worksheets. I was President of the PTSA at the time. Which was a complete and total waste of time.?
Bill in OKC
William R. Meyers, MSgt, USAF(Ret.)
Aphorisms to live by: Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.? SEMPER GUMBY!
Expect in one hand, expectorate in the other. See which one gets full first.
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 08:45:10 AM CDT, Peter Brooks < peter@...> wrote:
Blimey, this is all a blast from the past.
?
Litihum ¡®dancing¡¯ on water. Burning magnesium ribbon. Bunsen burners!? It¡¯s a wonder we survived unscathed. I think H&S may be quite different today in school labs.
?
The end of our chemistry teacher¡¯s nose was neatly squared off, the result (us kids believed) of an explosion. How it neatly took the end of his nose off without further damage I don¡¯t know¡ of course we didn¡¯t consider that then.
|
Yet another blast from the past - Graham Parker is best placed to tell what is all about?
Op 17-07-2024 16:02 CEST schreef Bill in OKC too via groups.io <wmrmeyers@...>:
?
?
My kids finished high school over a decade ago. Their high school was teaching the biology classes in the old Chemistry lab. Soapstone bench tops, deep sinks, and gas ports for Bunsen burners... But not a microscope in the class room. No dissections, just bookwork and worksheets. I was President of the PTSA at the time. Which was a complete and total waste of time.?
?
Bill in OKC
?
William R. Meyers, MSgt, USAF(Ret.)
?
Aphorisms to live by:
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.?
SEMPER GUMBY!
Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.
Physics doesn't care about your schedule.
The only reason I know anything is because I've done it wrong enough times to START to know better.
Expect in one hand, expectorate in the other. See which one gets full first.
?
?
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 08:45:10 AM CDT, Peter Brooks <peter@...> wrote:
?
?
Blimey, this is all a blast from the past.
?
Litihum ¡®dancing¡¯ on water. Burning magnesium ribbon. Bunsen burners! ?It¡¯s a wonder we survived unscathed. I think H&S may be quite different today in school labs.
?
The end of our chemistry teacher¡¯s nose was neatly squared off, the result (us kids believed) of an explosion. How it neatly took the end of his nose off without further damage I don¡¯t know¡ of course we didn¡¯t consider that then.
|
My kids finished high school over a decade ago. Their high school was teaching the biology classes in the old Chemistry lab. Soapstone bench tops, deep sinks, and gas ports for Bunsen burners... But not a microscope in the class room. No dissections, just bookwork and worksheets. I was President of the PTSA at the time. Which was a complete and total waste of time.?
Bill in OKC
William R. Meyers, MSgt, USAF(Ret.)
Aphorisms to live by: Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.? SEMPER GUMBY!
Expect in one hand, expectorate in the other. See which one gets full first.
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 08:45:10 AM CDT, Peter Brooks <peter@...> wrote:
Blimey, this is all a blast from the past.
?
Litihum ¡®dancing¡¯ on water. Burning magnesium ribbon. Bunsen burners! ?It¡¯s a wonder we survived unscathed. I think H&S may be quite different today in school labs.
?
The end of our chemistry teacher¡¯s nose was neatly squared off, the result (us kids believed) of an explosion. How it neatly took the end of his nose off without further damage I don¡¯t know¡ of course we didn¡¯t consider that then.
|
Blimey, this is all a blast from the past.
?
Litihum ¡®dancing¡¯ on water. Burning magnesium ribbon. Bunsen burners! ?It¡¯s a wonder we survived unscathed. I think H&S may be quite different today in school labs.
?
The end of our chemistry teacher¡¯s nose was neatly squared off, the result (us kids believed) of an explosion. How it neatly took the end of his nose off without further damage I don¡¯t know¡ of course we didn¡¯t consider that then.
|
I do remember the exact same experiment performed as a demonstration by my physics teacher. ? We occasionally found the odd tiny ball of mercury tucked into the ledge at the back of a lab bench, which might provide a few minutes distraction while we pinged it around with the edge of a ruler. ?We did know not to eat it or anything foolish like that. ?For a different demonstration using bromine, the same teacher warned us in advance of the danger of a spill, so, inevitably, at the slightest hint of a spill the entire class piled out of the door running riot down the corridor shouting our heads off on account of the catastrophe in motion. ? The teacher had given us full legitimacy in his prior warning, so we made the most of it.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On 17 Jul 2024, at 12:13, Jkle379184 via groups.io <jkle379184@...> wrote:
?
I have a mercury vacuum gage that is made to synchronize carburetors on motorcycles up to 4 cylinders. And yes it still works and I still use it. ?Jeff
An old experiment demonstrated in schools was to make a mercury
barometer.
Basically you fill a blind ended glass tube with mercury, put your
finger over the top and invert it putting the open end into a mercury
trough filled with mercury - remove the finger and lo and behold a
torricelli barometer.
The experiment had been banned when I started teaching more than 40
years ago but my first school had a class set (30+) of mercury troughs
in the prep room!
Can you imagine the mayhem with 30 1m long tubes full of mercury being
swing round by teenagers! - let alone the expense in mercury!!
A picture of a mercury trough is attached
Nick
|
I have a mercury vacuum gage that is made to synchronize carburetors on motorcycles up to 4 cylinders. And yes it still works and I still use it. ?Jeff
An old experiment demonstrated in schools was to make a mercury
barometer.
Basically you fill a blind ended glass tube with mercury, put your
finger over the top and invert it putting the open end into a mercury
trough filled with mercury - remove the finger and lo and behold a
torricelli barometer.
The experiment had been banned when I started teaching more than 40
years ago but my first school had a class set (30+) of mercury troughs
in the prep room!
Can you imagine the mayhem with 30 1m long tubes full of mercury being
swing round by teenagers! - let alone the expense in mercury!!
A picture of a mercury trough is attached
Nick
|
An old experiment demonstrated in schools was to make a mercury
barometer.
Basically you fill a blind ended glass tube with mercury, put your
finger over the top and invert it putting the open end into a mercury
trough filled with mercury - remove the finger and lo and behold a
torricelli barometer.
The experiment had been banned when I started teaching more than 40
years ago but my first school had a class set (30+) of mercury troughs
in the prep room!
Can you imagine the mayhem with 30 1m long tubes full of mercury being
swing round by teenagers! - let alone the expense in mercury!!
A picture of a mercury trough is attached
Nick
|
Don¡¯t assume that these kinds of decisions are ever based on logic rather than politics. ?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Martin Potter VE3OAT
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2024 4:50 PM
To: [email protected]; gfeldman2904@...
Subject: Re: [Unimat] Mercury on the Loose? "we were given orders by administration that we had to dispose of everything in the hospital containing metallic mercury"
Did no one recognize that the mercury thermometer and barometer were necessary to calibrate the instrument at the moment the critical measurement was being made??
|
Herman de Leeuw
Bill in OKC too
