Mercury

[mike thomas]

In my gold mining days, I used mercury to pick up the small stuff in the pan and the riffles. I would go to the local university chem stores, located in the chem building, and they would sell it across the counter. The first time I was questioned, and when I explained my burn off procedure and indicated that I was still alive, they handed it out by the bottle. However, this is only one of many stupid things that should have killed me, and I would not recommend any of them. Mike

[docn8as]

lost a classmate 6-7 yrs out of school ...could not figure out or stop the liver /kidney failure .....they figured it out after autopsy...mercury spills in carpet of dental office vaporized .........everyone has different tolerances....grand father died at 88 of natural causes w/ nicotene stains all over fingers ......wifes sister & brother dead of lung cancer @ 68,69. I sure had my hands in a lot of mercury for 20+ years ,apparantly little is absorbed as amalgam.....sure inhaled a lot of lead dust in 20 + years of indoor poorly ventilated competitive smallbore rifle shooting 1-3 times/week & i cant begin to count the # of lead bullets cast w/no ventilation .....thousands,,,,so far no problems...before we knew better , wife smoked /social drank thru 3 pregnencies w/ no apparant problems ,but birth wts WERE just under #6.......maybe we were just lucky!..drunks and fools are supposed to have guardian angels!
best wishes
docn8as

[Thrud]

As a result of desoldering circuit boards in mass volumes (100 lbs./month) I make my Quack test me for Lead poisoning once a year. I can taste that crap in my mouth (osmosis through the skin?) when I work on boards.

[Randy]

This is cool. I started a topic with a flaming folder icon!

Invar is certainly an option, but it would sidestep the challenge of making and adjusting a bi-metal compensation system. It's my fallback solution if I can't get a compensated pendulum to work to my satisfaction.

I do like the gridiron system of alternating steel and brass rods, but they must be made very long for a given beat rate, because the gridiron puts so much mass above the bob that the effective length is a lot less than the overall length. I intend to put the clock on my mantle, so I have limited space for the pendulum, but I want as slow beating a pendulum as I can manage. A mercury pendulum would do this for me, as it has a single thin steel rod and almost all its mass is in the bob.

Nested steel and zinc tubes is another well known method, which brings up another question: where do you get zinc tubing?

I could even try an "Ellicot" pendulum (look that one up) but it just seems too goofy.

While a mercury pendulum is elegant, and would be well sealed and reasonably well protected, the safety conscious among you are probably right. This would be an unnecessary, and some would say frivolous use of a significant amount of a hazardous substance. I'll probably opt for a safer design.

Thank you all for your input.

[RPease]

Randy,
Congratulations on your "flaming folder", but you could have done the same thing (in probably half the time) by asking, "What do you guy's think about the weather?".



Rodg

[Dave the Nave]

My Gosh!,and to think that the fillings in our teeth are amalgamated with mercury.I'd think being that said we'd all have health problems big time.Unless this is all abunch of Hooey.

[GreenWillyPeter]

Right on Nait. I was talking about elemental or amalgamated Mercury, the stuff every one plays with.

If you want a real wake up call, check out some of the information online on Mercury. No wonder it takes me 2 hours in the morning to get moving enough to get the coffe going.

By the by, the doctor I was talking about must have had his head where the sun don't shine. Hg can be inhaled, ingested, go throught the skin and it will go through the blood/brain and placental membrane. Even though it is a metal and liquid at room temp it is volatile and will vaporize at a given rate at room temp.

Stay completely away from this ****, it will put you with the worms.

GreenWillyPeter at your service

For a short time anyway??????

[docn8as]

dental amalgams of mercury /silver are inert & pose zero risk ....this was proved & settled 1895 ish ....just for the record , gold foil restorations have the most compatible coefficient of expansion with enamel( read that as less marginal leakage & recurrent decay ).white plastic /composite ,the worst w/ amalgam in between.....at least in 1980 ....havent paid much attention since ,been farming/machining where the real money is .....yeah.........
best wishes
docn8as

[1erful]

docn8as: You should have seen the howling and yowling at a recent Seattle city council about how silver fillings were causing all kinds of problems and that they should be banned. No facts just histerics. WALT WARREN

[Thrud]

I had Almalgam fillings - fortunately the dental work was so bad they offered root canals or to pull them "howmuch for a root canal?" Quack:"$1800 - no warranty if it don't work." me:"how much to pull them?" Quack:"$35 each and you even get Novacaine!" me:"pull the bastards..."

I like to chew big chunks of Aluminum foil when I wait in the dentists office - it scares the kids and adults!

[Thrud]

I almost forgot. Titanium teeth. They screw studs in your skull or jaw and then snap an Enamalled Titanium tooth on the stud - permenant dentures - and they said CNC machining of teeth was silly.