Disposal of Mercury

[Andy Dingley]

A cola-size can will weigh about zero, because it will be out the bottom and away in minutes...

[dennis]

Some of them are steel. Even the ali ones are plastic coated.

[Arfa Daily]

Remember when tins of drink were first introduced ? The shop used to open them for you with a 'tool' that had a bottle opener on one end, and a triangular hole puncher on the other end. If you were the one in the 'gang' who owned one of these, you were really the bollocks. I had an uncle who worked at the Watney's brewery, and he gave me a handful of them. I've still got a couple ! Then they went to the ring pull that came right off, obviating the need for a special opener, and then on to the flimsy cans with a popper on them, that we have now. I loathe the sound that they make. My wife drinks about a gallon of diet coke a day, and I wince every time I hear one 'going off' ... Those early cans were very stout. I remember that we used to have a special way of stamping on them to make them flat. You could never have crushed them in your hand like you can now.

Arfa

[Huge]

They used to make good shims for things, but no longer.

[PeterC]

Bad move - admitting to a relative that worked for Watney! I have one of the mini-can openers and it's most useful characteristic is that it isn't strong enough to open a Party 7.

[Dave Liquorice]

People are showing their age. B-)

[Jules Richardson]

There are thousands of 'em rusting away in the woods behind our house. Probably been there for 40 years or more...

I think I recall two generations of ring pull; the second (more recent) was much smaller than the first (although the larger type is still seen occasionally - at least here in the US - on some non-drink items).

Yes, it's just not the same! :-)

cheers

Jules

[John Rumm]

;-)

I am sure we did plenty of things at school that were dodgy then - let alone now...

Making Nitrogen Triiodide was fun (we were allowed to make it on the understanding none of it left the lab... not sure is there were any of us that did not spirit at least some out!)

A demo of converting copper coins into "silver" by rubbing with Millon's Solution (a Mercury and Nitric acid reagent IIRC) - apparently this was a technique that kept the teacher in question in cheap beer at a local pub through his university days, due to the peculiarities of pre decimal coinage.

The manufacture of bromide gas was also entertaining when someone forgot to hook the reaction vessel up to the gas jar and filled the lab instead ;-)

And chucking various reactive metals in water was always fun.

[Richard]

There ya go! Humility with a cherry on top. ;)

[Andrew Gabriel]

I made it at home, Scrubbs household ammonia, Iodine, and tincture of iodine (potassium iodide solution) bought from the chemist.

Due to my impatience waiting for it to dry, I managed to flick a fair amount of it on the floor before it was dry, which resulted in an interesting crackling effect later when walking over it.

Normally it was pretty harmless, but someone did manage to make enough in the fume cupboard that it blow up the filter funnel when it was later being cleared away. I think words were said at that point, but it was very much about being more careful, and not dampening the enthusiasm for such activities. Actually, looking back, our chemistry teachers allowed us to do some quite risky things like dropping sodium into acid (by a remote control scheme we had to build for the purpose). That was really spectacular, and we could see why the text books all say to never do this. One of the chemistry teachers had a license to manufacture fireworks (and did so regularly), so they were well aware of the dangers, but also the enthusiasm they could generate in the subject.

In my brother's year, there used to be a game of "chicken" which played out during chemistry lessons. At the start, someone got a beaker out of the cupboard, and poured some chemical into it from the bench (we had lots of chemical reagent bottles on the benches, although nothing particularly harmful was left out permanently). The beaker was passed on to the next person to add some other chemical. If you were lucky, nothing much happened. If you were unlucky, it frothed up all over the bench, and you then had to hide the mess or if noticed, quickly think of a pausible excuse.

I just can't imagine any of this happening today. Chemistry must be very boring...

[Peter Crosland]

I think you mean ammonium tri-iodide made by dissolving iodine in 880 ammonia solution. This forms a brown precipitate that is incredibly unstable particularly when dried.

[Alan (BigAl)]

Thanks for putting me in mind of school chemistry lessons.

Our chemistry teacher was employed during the war in munitions/explosives development. He was responsible for my interest in the subject, leading to a lifetime working in jobs related to chemistry.

At the end of the year, when there was a lul after exams and before the formal end of term, he would carry out some practical demonstrations which served to educate, but also entertain. The most vigourous of which (as I remember from 40+ years ago) was creating some thermite in a bucket at the back of the lab out of the view of the other school buildings.

The big bang and the huge cloud of smoke gave him away, however. His palour and reaction to the event told us he got the proportions wrong, and I doubt he repeated the trick. It was entertaining though.

Al.

[John Rumm]

Indeed another name for the same thing... NI3

(IIRC we made it with crystallized iodine, which then allows you to pour off the amonia once "activated" - its then stable so long as its kept wet)

aka Nitrogen iodide, Ammonia triiodide, Triiodine nitride, and others...

Yes and nice puff of purple smoke... and a yellow stain on anything that it detonates on.

[PeterC]

That did occur to me - just after I pressed Send!

[Peter Crosland]

Indeed but as I recall it was NH4I3 but there is some doubt because it is so unstable it is very hard to work with.

[Jason Judge]

It is used in the Souter Lighthouse

today. The whole lens assembly floats in a ring of mercury, making it so frictionless that you can rotate the two-tonne assembly with a finger.

-- Jason

[Andy Champ]

I recall trying to pick up a bottle of mercury at school once. A bit smaller than a coke can, polythene bottle.

I say "tried", because when I put my hand around it and lifted my grip wasn't strong enough, my hand slipped off, and it didn't move. Felt like it was glued to the bench.

Andy

[Andy Dingley]

My pocket money as a kid came from recycled mercury. I collected it in a carboy, and when that was full, off it went to the merchant. It was about 120lbs when it was full and quite an awkward lift into a van.

One day, we dropped it. The whole thing shattered and (with the momentum that comes from mercury falling a couple of feet) the stuff splattered into every far corner of the garage. We swept up as much as possible and did the whole filtering through cheesecloth thing (actually the dealer wasn't fussy, because anything you adulterate mercury with is lighter than it is). For a couple of years afterwards though, shining a light in the far corners under the benches would show up little sparkly droplets.

--

10/6 in this size. Woof bark donkey

[John Rumm]

Yup there do seem to be various conflicting references.

Thought this one was quite nice:

[John Rumm]

Spoken like a true Scot ;-)