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Having a discussion with my mother about various strange effects that our in our families possession (mainly due to our family containing many eccentric sciency types)
One of the items is a little stoppered stoneware bottle of mercury...Now I'm not scared of the contents as they stay in the bottle and are no longer played with (unlike in my mother's childhood - could explain a lot!).
But my simple question is - is it illegal to actual posses it? i know there are a lot of restrictions with regards to manufacturing etc but you can own a mercury filled antique barometer so i guess this is ok?
As long as we dont take it on a plane or post it??
I don't think there are any restrictions on owning mercury at all.
Very disappointing, I was hoping that your granddad had left you a shrunken head or mummified corpse.
Mercury in a bottle:
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which bit of fred is in the Jar? 😯
edit: beaten to it.
Don't open the bottle......
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shrunken head
My thoughts exactly....
Good glad there are no restrictions - someone was trying to tell her she shouldn't have it.
No shrunken heads - although there are some at Ripley believe it or not in picadily if you want to see such a thing (and pay a small fortune on admission!)
Is it red mercury? Some guys from ISIS have been trying to buy that ever since some Russians published that it was highly explosive.
I was thinking maybe ivory or a spear from the Zulu wars.
My gut feeling that although it's not illegal, would be to get rid (safely, via the appropriate channels). It's mercury, it's hazardous waste, not an heirloom. Mercury is surprisingly volatile, so unless the lid is properly airtight then it's a risk, and it could always be dropped and smashed, then you've got mercury soaked carpet's/floorboards to get rid of.
Sell it to the one of the online science folk?
Mail order uranium here - https://www.unitednuclear.com/
IIRC selling mercury thermometers will become illegal under EU law next year?
we still have a few knocking about our institute, but I get them disposed of properly ( a special comapany collects that stuff) whenever I come across some them as its toxic
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mercury-properties-incident-management-and-toxicology
Is it just me seeing a way to fast track your inheritance?
^^
Bookmarked
Just pour it down the sink, like 🙄
Sell it? It's expensive to buy.
I once had some splashed in my face! In a lesson at school with 'Froggy' Fountain the science teacher showing us how to make a thermometer. No safety goggles/clothes, just a group of us stood around him as he poured it into a tube.
Some splashed out and I felt something on my face (very near to my eye). A quick trip to the matron's office for an eye bath and back to school work...
If that was today, my parents would be suing the school....
No desire to sell it or get rid of it. It will be staying where it is - just wanted to check where we were legally with it 🙂
Get rid of it - nasty, nasty stuff.
Kills you and the environment.
Bah, we had a big jar of it in our garage when I was a kid - great fun rolling it around in the palm of your hand ... and look at me, I'm [i]fine[/i]
I did a chemistry degree in Sheffield and saw far to much accidentally ending up where it shouldn't in first year Labs - at least it isn't trimethylmercury 🙂
A quick trip to the matron's office
Matron's office..???? Middle class or what?
Every decent chemistry set used to have some - normal?
Classing as family heirloom - very strange?
I had a mate with a mercury maze toy, which broke in his bedroom aged about 13.
Lost his hair 5 years later, has the attention span of a stoner and could have done loads more with his life.
Yes it's an science oddity that's nice to look at - but it's also a horrible toxic chemical that has no use in a domestic environment.
It contaminates pretty much everything it touches and is incredibly potent.
Sell it? It's expensive to buy.
£10,000 per ton for 99.99% pure stuff in bulk (a little over 3x copper), but like all metals in recent years the price goes up and down like a yo-yo.
A bottle like that you'd have to pay someone to take it away if you were a business. Most sources of it are as a waste from the production of other stuff (oil and gas). It's only expensive when it's being sold by lab supply companies (who've purified it etc).
I did a chemistry degree in Sheffield and saw far to much accidentally ending up where it shouldn't in first year Labs - at least it isn't trimethylmercury
High 5 fellow Sheffield Chemistry grad!
But, I graduated in '08 and got a proper bollocking for even having a stoppered jar of zinc amalgam outside the fume cupboard in the 2nd year. Just because something was overlooked in the past doesn't mean it's right.
That seems a very odd reaction to a tiny amount of elemental mercury
Matron's office..???? Middle class or what?
Not at all - just a long time ago when they were still called that.
I was hoping for conjoined twins in formaldehyde.
Most disappointing.
^^
Kinky 😯
High 5 fellow Sheffield Chemistry grad!But, I graduated in '08 and got a proper bollocking for even having a stoppered jar of zinc amalgam outside the fume cupboard in the 2nd year. Just because something was overlooked in the past doesn't mean it's right.
I'm not suggesting it was right! Just saying we are a lot more careful with this bottle than many of my fellow students (and it wasn't that long ago - we didn't have a matron to run to that's for sure!)
Chemistry safety hat on - you should arrange for it to be disposed of. How about phoning your local university chemistry department, they might take it off your hands.
It really is too hazardous to leave in the family home, OKish stoppered but if spilt...
Got me thinking. In mum's house there is the skull of a young Sudanese woman, a couple of 9 foot tribal spears, hippo teeth, a ceremonial hat with human hair and teeth...
Yes, they lived in Africa for a while in the sixties
Saccades - Member
Get rid of it - nasty, nasty stuff.Kills you and the environment.
I remember at school ...I was about 7... And the teacher poured some in a tray for all us kids to play with...all we was told was " don't put it in your mouth"!!
We had some crazy times in the 70's..ha ha ha
i wouldn't have it in the house , but we do have kids and accidents can happen.
Maybe seek professional advice from someone with a chemistry degree...., oh, hang on 🙂
It's unlikely to be illegal to keep it, but if it got spilled outside your house, for example, you could be knowingly causing contamination and liable for cleanup, and i don't just mean scooping up a few bubbles of mercury from your patio....
I had a mate with a mercury maze toy, which broke in his bedroom aged about 13.Lost his hair 5 years later, has the attention span of a stoner and could have done loads more with his life.
I grew up in the grounds of a hospital we'd often play with discarded thermometers. We'd snap them open and collect the Mercury to play with making such things as mazes. Other than starting to lose my hair in my 30s I've done pretty well.
Why do you think it was the Mercury?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_the_First_Qin_Emperor
Anomalously high levels of mercury in the area of the tomb mound were found.[15] This gives credence to the Sima Qian's account that mercury was used to simulate waterways and the seas in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. However, some scholars believe that if the underground palace is excavated, the mercury will quickly volatilize.
collect the Mercury to play with making such things as mazes. Other than starting to lose my hair in my 30s I've done pretty well.
Mazes eh? Losing your hair?
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Like others have posted i used to have a bottle of it in my chemistry set (late 70's/early 80's) - bloody heavy stuff and good fun to roll around but i was always more interested in lighting my magnesium strips or trying to make stuff explode, in the mid 80's we moved onto building fertiliser bombs/projectiles at my mates farm . Eventually found the perfect formulae and mix ratio along with the aid of a compressor line to aerate the mixture before ignition - with the use of lengths of welded stainless pipe we built a projectile launcher that could fire turnips the length of two fields - top class fun for us growing up in Argyll. Till we got delusions of grandeur and built a contraption using a 50 gallon oil drum……..destroyed a perfectly good barn and blew debris for hundreds of yards.
Severe talking to after that one and to be honest we were very lucky no-one was severely injured.
I imagine you'd get a visit from the authorities these days if you let your kids do similar 😉
get rid of it. Try your local university or council.
Fascinating stuff, best kept in a sealed container. A Mercury arc rectifier in action is a sight to behold.
Whilst working at an old foundry in Manchester I found a large glass valve of some descrictiption in an old substation attached to the building inside the valve was Mercury sloshing around. The valve thingy was cracked so I poured the mercury in to a jam jar and have had it in the cellar ever since. Usually get it out at partys to amaze people of it weight! 🙂
It's not mine or in my possession to get rid of and I doubt the person who has it will do anyway. It has been kept safely for a very long time - I wasn't allowed to play with it as a child but I know my mum did once or twice (and she's 66 now, and remarkably sane).
Elemental mercury isn't as poisonous as water soluble mercury compounds - I'm pretty sure even if you swallowed it you absorb very little (But no I am not saying try it!!!). But regardless of that it is kept very securely.
As for the bloke who broke his maze then lost his hair - he probably just went bald and became a stoner
I'm obviously getting no-where with all the experts who played with in back in the day.
At least read this and have a good idea of what to do in case there is an accident please.
[url= https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/chemicals/hsees/mercury/cleaning_up_a_small_mercury_spill.htm ]Comprehensive cleanup guide.[/url]
This is nothing. Mrs PPs grandad (RIP) used to have a WW2 hand grenade in an ice cream tub in the garage. Yes I saw it.
When he died they had to get the bomb squad in. I kid you not. Thankfully it was found to have been deactivated.
Lord knows what happened to the revolver and ammo. I think it's gone.. I hope it's gone, seriously, because if it's not her mum lives in the hose now and when she corks it, I'll have to get it delt with.
I'd keep it just to play with - suitably sealed of course. Don't play with it like I did when I was a kid, putting my hand in a big flask of it.
If that was today, my parents would be suing the school....
That would have been a good thing.
Found a bottle of it at a school I used to work in. The technician looked up all the relevant guidelines and asked some official-sounding people and we got to keep it. We kept it in a V strong transparent container that was held in place inside another bottle so that pupils could handle it to feel the weight. Really cool.
This was only about 5 years ago.
Saccades - Member
Get rid of it - nasty, nasty stuff.Kills you and the environment.
It [i]is[/i] a naturally occurring element that can be found in the environment, along with a whole bunch of other nasty poisonous and radioactive materials that can kill people very effectively, meanwhile 'the environment' carries on its own sweet way.
I think you'll find volcanoes do a much better job than a couple of kilos of liquid mercury.
Just don't take it onto a plane.
I had a mate with a mercury maze toy
Me too. 😀
Well hard to control it.
I'm obviously getting no-where with all the experts who played with in back in the day.
Well to be fair, you've not really presented much in the way of fact as opposed to anecdote. We all know its not good to handle but what happened to your mate could have been down to any number of things.
When I was in sixth year, there were only three of us doing Physics so we got to sit in the store room between the two physics classrooms.
We were bored one day so started playing with a bottle of mercury rolling a ball of it around a desk. We dropped it on the floor and started to try and get it back in the bottle. Well the head of physics walks in and was apoplectic with rage.
Not because we dropped the mercury on the floor, but because my mate was trying to pick it up with a magnet. Doh!!!
I found a large glass valve of some descrictiption in an old substation attached to the building inside the valve was Mercury sloshing around.
Sounds like a mercury arc rectifier, I had the job of collecting the mercury from a number of them at an old power station that was closing down, ended up with half a bucket full of mercury which was about £18000 worth at the time (early 80's).I hate to imagine the H&S implications to do the job now.
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My mum found a pair of duelling pistols in the loft when she was clearing out my grandmother's house. The family had lived there for over 100 years.
Apparently they can be kept and don't even need to be on a firearm certificate as they are a historic firearm.
@dibbs yep looked a lot like that, was inside a wooden crate packed with straw was all a bit raiders of the lost arc/Frankenstein labaratory. Should have took the lot really but that would be cluttering up the cellar too. Better I took the Mercury than the outfit I was working for poured it in the canal behind the job
I changed a few faulty ones when the station was still running, lifting a big heavy fragile vacuum bulb containing several pounds of mercury into a small compartment was definitely squeaky bum time.