Source for mercury ?

[Sunbeam]

I want to obtain about 40ml mercury to refill an open cistern barometer. Any ideas for a supplier please?

Many thanks

Sunbeam

[Graeme]

sounds very expensive.

[Smudger]

or if you know someone who works in a secondary school, they might be able to help.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Back when I was at school, you could go into any chemist and order chemicals, and they could get them same day or next day with their regular drug deliveries. Actually I still have some of them left. I haven't tried doing this for ~30 years, and nowadays it would probably get you instantly arrested as a terrorist threat...

[sylva]

Try a news search on uk.rec.engines.stationary, there was a chap on there wishing to get rid of some a month or so back, a cross post may be in order.

AJH

[Mike Harrison]

[Ric]

turning into the place where you can buy anything isn't it!

[Autolycus]

barometer.

Good grief, that's a lot to be still swilling round your kitchen floor ;-)

Passmore

say that they have to use a carrier as Royal Mail won't accept mercury. Theirs is 18.80gbp plus VAT for 175g.

Clock Spares (Specialist Supplies Ltd) of Dereham sell it, too, and I expect H S Walsh do. Then there are the two barometer repair places in Devon - google finds them.

I got my last lot from the local pharmacist - once I'd convinced him I wasn't going to make tilt switches with it.

[Robert]

I have about 250ml of mercury that I want to find a good home for. Assuming it isn't very valuable, you are welcome to have it if you can collect it from Watford.

Please contact me on:

laws (at) cambridge.oilfield.slb.com

Robert

[Des Higgins]

Mercury IS valuable (well it is all relative I guess). At a wild guess I say you have 100quids worth.

[Owain]

"Autolycus" wrote | I got my last lot from the local pharmacist - once I'd convinced | him I wasn't going to make tilt switches with it.

Tilt switches for setting off car-bombs like you can easily get from Maplins? (the tilt switches that is, not the car-bombs).

Owain

[raden]

In message , Autolycus writes

Most couriers won't either, except by special £££ arrangement

[raden]

In message , Robert writes

Oohh I'll take some of that off your hands if you're in Watford

Email me your address and I'll pop round

[raden]

In message , Des Higgins writes

Bloody hell

[Dave Stanton]

On

Did'nt he know you can buy them ready made ?

Dave

[G&M]

I think it's now a restricted substance. A whole generation won't know the fun of seeing how many times you can divide a globule of the stuff with your fingernail :-)

[Ian Stirling]

You can use gallium/indium alloy as a substitute. Comparatively non-toxic, and can be rolled around in your hands.

Sodium/potassium alloy is much cheaper, but has the disadvantage that it'll burst into flames when you do that.

[G&M]

That was a restricted (to teachers only) substance when I was young !!!!!

[Ian Stirling]

Sodium/potassium, or indium? I've got both indium, gallium from ebay.

[Andrew Gabriel]

The History of Chemistry lessons must be quite strange...

First there's the period when there of lots of substances which you can play around with, but they just aren't well understood.

Then you move into the period when they are understood, and so playing around can be done in the context of demonstrating their properties.

Then you move into the last period where they're all banned substances and you can only read about them.

I'm jolly glad I went to school in the second period. My first chemistry lesson at age 11, the teacher was off sick (hum, maybe something to that now;-). Anyway we sat at the benches and got out some homework to do from a different class instead. After a while, people got bored, and started pinging the tiny ball bearings around which were on the benches. Then we discovered that if two of them touched, they joined into a bigger ball bearing. Of course, these were tiny globules of mercury someone had spilt in an earlier class. I wonder how many of todays school kids have the slightest feeling for the real physical behaviour of mercury, rather than what they read in a book? Does it matter? I wonder if we've banned all discussion of fast exothermic reactions in schools now too?