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Any uses for Mercury??

jackalope

Titanium
Joined
Oct 8, 2004
Location
St. Peters, MO
I had someone I work with as me if I had any use for ~1/4 lb of Mercury. Does anyone know of any useful things this can be used for SAFELY?
If anyone needs it or wants it, let me know. I imagine there are plenty of laws about handling/disposal, but I do not have it in my posession at this time.--Grant
 
I wouldn't touch the stuff. Hazmat disposal is probably about all you can do with it, and that will probably cost you a pretty penny. Any other disposal of it will surely cost you a even more if you are caught.
 
It' great adding weight to plumb bobs. I'm not sure what the risks of working with it are, but don't breath it.
 
Makes a dandy recoil reducer for a hard kicking rifle or shotgun, but I don't think you have enough there.
Be VERY careful about shipping/handling that stuff. I used to rebuild rotary welding electrodes that used mercury between the stator and rotor. We had to stop because the liability got to be too much. One customer failed to declare the hazmat and shipped several back to us. The box broke open in a UPS handling facility. They got a $25,000 bill from the hazmat cleanup and closure of the facility for cleanup.

Just take it out to Busch out past Francis Howell HS and bury it in the woods. There's a lot worse stuff in those ponds out there around the old ammo plant.
 
Mercury makes a nice gargle. Rub it in open wounds. Feed it to song birds. A drop in a baby's bottle to agitate the Sim-U-Lac. Coat the kid's Christmas money with it. Spray it on organic vegetables.

Lots of good stuff to do with mercury.
 
Drop it off in Clifton Park..... They are used to it.

The last mercury they had there was in the form of a 20lb can of 50 year old fulminate of mercury........ in a car trunk.
 
Mercury makes a nice gargle. Rub it in open wounds. Feed it to song birds. A drop in a baby's bottle to agitate the Sim-U-Lac. Coat the kid's Christmas money with it. Spray it on organic vegetables.
Funny enough, none of these things will cause any real problems as metallic mercury doesn't have any bioavailability. For mercury to be dangerous to you (short of drowning in the stuff) it has to be in a compound that allows it to be taken up by your metabolic processes - like in a carbonate, sulphate or something like that. An oxide doesn't count. If it's *very* finely dispersed and you breathe it some might lodge in your lungs and become bioavailable, but it's a stretch. As an example, mettalic mercury used to be prescribed as a laxative, and so far as I have ever read no one was killed in the process.

Now, if you methylate it you've got something close to the level of poisonous that a lot of folks seem to think all mercury is.

Oh, yeah, it's great for deleading barrels that can't be cleaned any other way. Brush out as best you can, clean with solvent, plug one end real good and pour in a few tablespoons of mercury. Plug the other end and shake it really well, repeat once in a while, leave overnight. Repeat the shaking once in a while for an hour end empty. All the lead and copper the mercury could see will be gone with the mercury.
 
For mercury to be dangerous to you (short of drowning in the stuff) it has to be in a compound that allows it to be taken up by your metabolic processes - like in a carbonate, sulphate or something like that. An oxide doesn't count.
The rat oral LD50 for mecuric oxide is 18 mg per kilo. The primary cause of death is kidney damage although it does affect many other organs including causing direct brain damage. This rating places mercuric oxide in the acutely toxic category.

Elemental mercury also presents a particular hazard as it has a very low vapor pressure and readily evaporates at standard pressure and temperature. It may then be inhaled and is very efficiently absorbed in the lungs. Elemental mercury pose little or no hazard in the digestive tract and is not easily absorbed through the skin.
 
I have a freind who's grandpa used to drink jiggers of the stuff. He was a gold miner early in the last century, and they would drink the stuff to see who would buy the next round. First one that it passed through got to buy, He said it took about ten minutes portal to portal.
 
For cryin' out loud!!! I think I've heard it all after the last comment!! I don't want to know how long he didN'T live!!
The person who has this stuff is a pharmacist and said that it was used LONG ago and was injected into the weiner to treat syphyllis before anti-biotics were readily available!!
He's got a load of all kinds of illegal poisonous stuff..They don't use this anymore..OBVIOUSLY. Kinda neat to hear what they used to use "back in the day".
 
When I first read this post, I thought about exploding bullets, but thought I probably shouldn't mention that.. I saw it in a movie, woundered if it really works.
Then you guys start talking about drinking, injecting, feeding to birds... geeze

What's happening to your avatars?
 
This rating places mercuric oxide in the acutely toxic category.
But it doesn't tend to oxidize at STP, so there's not a lot of concern to be placed unless or until you start distilling it. Lookup dimethylmercury for a good example of a toxic mercury compound (it's really overkill, even in the family).


I saw it in a movie, woundered if it really works.
I wouldn't expect it to have much of an effect. The mercury would amalgamate with the lead and make it soft. With some bullets that would make it less deadly, with others it might make it more so through expansion; but it wouldn't make any 'explode'.
 
"Elemental mercury also presents a particular hazard as it has a very low vapor pressure and readily evaporates at standard pressure and temperature. It may then be inhaled and is very efficiently absorbed in the lungs."

This is true...and the reason why the experts clear the area when there is a mercury spill.

If you value your longterm health, you will get rid of any mercury ASAP safely. If you see someone burying it as a quick way to eliminate a problem, do humanity a favor and bury him too.

TMT
 
I used to use it for cleanup of gold concentrates and retorted [distilling] about once a week. Allways keep it wet with PH 9+ water. Used it till 3 years ago got tested for mercury twice a year never had a blood test that showed pos. And i handled it without gloves. If you know how to handle it safely.it is not dangerous.

Some towns have days that you can take haz materals to sites for free disposal. If you can find one that is the best way to get rid of it.
 








 
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