Uses of Mercury?

[A-BOMB]

I was out and about a couple of days ago and I came upon a old refinery like site that was abandoned out in the middle of no-where, so I kicked in a door and took a look around and found some rather cool stuff, like some Carbon Tetrachloride fire extinguishers and a specific gravity/spectrometer unit (not really sure what it was, what ever it was it was huge like room size) probably from the 1940-50's. So I when back to me car and got some tools and started taking it apart, and about one thousand screws and a bunch of grime later I had it open. And I found a reservoir of about 5 pounds of mercury, for some of the gauges, and about a hundred vacuum tubes and some other stuff to sell on eBay. So me question is, what to do with the mercury? I know I could make some switched, and mercury fulminate, and some other things, but what about pyro uses of mercury? What would happen if I mixed some in to a thermite or other pyro comp? What if I added it to a HE would it change the properties of the detonation? Mods move this if you want I couldn't think where to put it.

[nbk2000]

Use it for making vaccum gauges. :) The scientific americam amatuer scientist CD has a butt-load of things you can make that use large amounts of mercury, like diffision pumps that'll make a vacuum like that found in outer space. :D

BTW, I'll contact you about another use via PGP once you get your key working.

[A-BOMB]

I got the key working(I think)
Well I also drained out one of the carbon tetrachloride fire extinguishers and replaced the Co2 cartridge with a new one and filled it with some alcohol and it makes a wicked flame thrower.

[megalomania]

I would say sell the mercury and use the money to buy bigger and better things. You can keep a little for yourself, but mercury really should not be used unless you really have to. There are a few chemical reactions that require mercury, but really I don't think there is anything that does not have a Hg alternative.

The last time I heard of someone stumbling on a 5 lb stash of Hg in their garage they called the fire dept and the haz mat people took it away. Too bad for him because Hg is worth its weight in gold... (well, maybe silver). Basicially the man was robbed because like most sheeple: chemicals = fear. For those of us old enough to remember mercury was something we rolled around on our hands and had a great time playing with. Today, drop a mercury thermometer (assuming you can still find one) and they call the haz mat people :(

Enough nostalga... I say sell it, make a profit. Just be discreet because they may send the haz mat people after you for improper storage of a toxic material.

[A-BOMB]

Mega have any idea the approximate value per pound?

[10fingers]

5 lbs. of mercury! That's a nice find. I sold 1/4 lb. on ebay awhile back for $30.00 so a lb. would get you $120.00.
I would sell most of it but save some. Email me, I might buy some from you.

[nbk2000]

Why is it nobody ever bothers with providing a link to the ACTUAL public key, instead of the hash, thinking that somehow works? :confused:

E-mail me an export of your public key.

http://home.highway1.com.au/html/toolbox/pgpformmail/export/

As for mercury, it'd be better used for instrumentation, as buying gauges and pumps capable of extremely low vacuum is astronomically expensive. A diffusion pump that uses ~8 pounds of mercury (250ml) costs $2K. :eek:

http://www.signweb.com/neon/tips/tips.htm

[A-BOMB]

NBK e-mails on the way.

[tom haggen]

If I were you I would convert a lot of that into a mercury salt. Much safer and to handle that way. Maybe mercury is made out to be a lot more harmfull than it really is. But from what I understand prolonged exposure to mercury vapor will cause you to go insane, and will ultimately lead to death. With that said I believe the abundancy of mercury in the earths crust is something like .00005%, Gold is about the same abundance. In any case good find man :)

[Anthony]

What?!

Why do you only find out these things when it's too late? Wish I'd known how much Hg was worth 6 months ago.

I came across a plastic container left in a storage/work area which had several pounds of mercury in it. I took the lid off, confirmed that it was indeed mercury, thought it neat how haphazzardly it'd been left and walked off.

If I'd have known that it was so precious...

[Sarevok]

Mercury is useful to make apparatuses that produce very low (e.g. 10-10 Torr) pressures inside a distillation apparatus (of course it can be used to reduce the pressure inside other things), something that is required to produce Sarin, DFP, Tabun, or similar compounds in an adequate state of purity.

With so many pounds of mercury you could easily produce mercury fulminate (of course not all at a time) enough to make detonators for a long time.

If you can, mail a little of it to me. We can arrange a price.

EDIT: Is the mercury clean-looking and bright? When finely divided, does it coalesce into larger drops or it doesn't? The reservoir that contains it is made of what? Iron? Please don't put the mercury inside another container, as this could foul it.

[Grapes Of Wraith]

recently I volulteered at a receclying center for service hours because of my high school. I noticed that they recive a ton of mercury, and hate it because its hazardous. people just leave it there and drive away. so I am sure that they'd let you have some if you convinced them you had the proper equitment at your lab.

[13000]

recently I volulteered at a receclying center for service hours because of my high school. I noticed that they recive a ton of mercury, and hate it because its hazardous. people just leave it there and drive away. so I am sure that they'd let you have some if you convinced them you had the proper equitment at your lab.

Or don't ask, and just take.

[Grapes Of Wraith]

I've had many chances to "take" it but they dont keep it stock piled so I'd only get a little bit of it and I dont have any nitric acid for mercury fulminate, but I could always replace nitric acid with ammonium nitrate, right? Or I could sell it.
I'm not to much into stealing Im an honest person, unless the mercury is as valuable as you say it is.

[festergrump]

Im an honest person, unless the mercury is as valuable as you say it is.

LOL! Now THAT's quotable... Greed takes the angel out of us all sometimes, doesn't it? :)

You cannot just substitute AN for HNO3. AN + H2SO4 can work for some nitrations, but better to distill it first from both components, then use it in your synth in most cases, I think.

[Grapes Of Wraith]

Every person has thier price....
Well the mercury they have at the recycling center is mostly in thermometers and switches so alot of extraction time is requiered.

[Evolutionist]

If I were you I would convert a lot of that into a mercury salt.

Mercury salts are not safer than mercury. All oxadising it to HgCl2 does is make it much more soluable in the body for easy absorbtion. Hg2Cl2 is slightly safer than the Hg2+ ion due to it being less soluable.