In sci.physics greysky wrote:

"Double-A" wrote in message
oups.com...

G=EMC^2 Glazier wrote:
Warning Warning Warning Once mercury gets into your blood its very bad
news. It ends up in your brain and nerve system. You will die a death
very close to Parkinsen disease. If even you swallow just a little
Bert


I heard that swallowing mercury was somewhat of a fad back in the
renaissance days. Mercury was used in a lot of traditional medicines
too. My dentist put lots of it in my teeth in all those amalgam
filings. That metallic taste couldn't have been from the silver! He
even gave me some mercury to take home and play with (shutter!). In
school they put Mercurichrome on my cuts and scrapes, loaded with
mercury. In college chemistry class we did the notorious classic
experiment of heating cinnabar and condensing mercury, presumably
inhaling lots of mercury vapor during the experiment. Then we washed
the mercury down the drain, leaving a deposit in the trap to provide
the lab air with a continuous supply of mercury vapor! I found that I
liked swordfish. Then I found out that it is very high in mercury! I
was told to use a salve for a rash I had. Yep! Loaded with mercury!

So if I seem a little edgy, I guess its because all that accumulated
nerve damage from all that mercury over the years!

Double-A

Actually, Mercury has gotten a bad rap these past years. Mercury in metal
form, such as in thermometers, represents very little danger. If a kid eats
it, it passes through the gut and out the other end with little interaction
with the body. Mercury in other forms, such as cinnabar, is very bad
however. Boiling mercury over a open flame is even worse. Old time
prospectors used to collect the gold flakes out of their pan by adding
mercury to the mix. The gold dissolves in the mercury, and eventually a
putty like substance called hardcake is formed. The miners used to cook
their hardcake in a hollowed out potato, and boil off the mercury leaving
only gold behind. Of course, they also exposed themselves (and the
environment ) to a whopping amount of mercury vapors and sometimes went mad.
Old time photographers also used mercury in their flash powder and photo
developing chemicals - over time the mercury they contacted and absorbed
destroyed their brains. The disease was called The Mad Hatters sickness, and
sufferers would rip their own eyes out of their heads and cut their own
throats amongst other gruesome things. But, a small kid playing with liquid
mercury is pretty safe even if they eat it. "course, I wouldn't make a habit
of it...

Greysky

The first photographs used the dauguerrotype method.

The dauguerrotype was a treated copper plate developed over a warm
mercury bath.

Once the silver halide process used today was invented, the mercury went away.

Mad Hatters is a result of using mercurous nitrate to manufacture felt
hats, which filled the hat factories with mercury fumes.


--
Jim Pennino

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