Wot's that funny smell?

[bogeyman]

Not sure if I imagined this, but I seem to remember an old black and white film of a chap sitting (wriggling, writhing and performing minor acrobatics) on the surface of a tank full of mercury, about the surface area of a snooker table.

The commentary went something like (in best 1940s BBC RP): -

BBC: Oh! and here's Mister Fred Digby. Fred has worked for Consolidated Chemical Suicides , since he was a nipper.

Hello Fred! How are you? And what's the mercury like?

FRED: Well Sir, The best thing is, you don't have to be able to swim - which I can't - you can never drown in mercury, you just float on the top! It's wonderful!

[RichardCranium]

P.S. I do know about the nastiness of sulphur. When I were a lad there was a chemical plant surprisingly close to the town centre which spewed out yellow smoke at first storey level, and the staff in the office across the road would pack up and go home when the wind was in the wrong direction.

The sulphur from the Leeds gas works used to kill the city's babies circa 1890.

[Sysman]

I was actually thinking of Hg getting into electrical stuff when I wrote the above. How fast does it react with aluminium?

The sulphur treatment is a good tip though. I've always fancied an antique version of a barometer cum thermometer thingy.

P.S. I do know about the nastiness of sulphur. When I were a lad there was a chemical plant surprisingly close to the town centre which spewed out yellow smoke at first storey level, and the staff in the office across the road would pack up and go home when the wind was in the wrong direction.

[RichardCranium]

Loose mercury also gets everywhere. You can't just mop it up.

Powdered sulphur does a good job. Lots of powdered sulphur.

We learned that when we broke a mercury barometer at school. The lab tech came out with a big box of pretty yellow sulphur on bunged loads on the table.

"Don't breathe the dust" said the physics teacher. "It's only a bit safer than the mercury."

[Sysman]

Loose mercury also gets everywhere. You can't just mop it up.

[TimberWolf]

They hate mercury, so much so that they might scrap the plane if you spill some.

[HairyArsedBloke]

I thought this was going to be about the cosmic dump I've just had

Anyway, yeah, that story show just how stupid some people can be. I bet he votes for nuLieBore too.

[zeitghost]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...er/8279917.stm

It's used to strip etch resist off pcbs amongst other things.

And yes, it really does stink.

Be interesting to know what it does to aluminium alloy too.

Wrong stuff.

Resist stripper contains, amongst others, monoethanolamine.




And this is what mercury does to aluminium: