Source for mercury ?

[Ian Stirling]

Though they do sell tanks with working guns.

[Owain]

"G&M" wrote | 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 :-)

Nowadays the kids practice dividing up other restricted substances on a mirror with a razorblade.

Owain

[Andy Wade]

Yes, it's all very sad. For an interesting thread on this subject started by one bright youngster see

[jim.]

Ok nostalgia time.. I remember chatting to the science teacher and idly nudging the balls of mercury together that were kicking about his desk. He went ape-shit shouting the odds as to the dangers of handling liquid mercury, no mention of his responsibility for having it laid about where children could handle it. Ahh! the best days of your life eh.

[Andy Dingley]

MNT or DNT possibly, but not TNT.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Maybe -- I don't now recall enough of the details of what we did. It was certainly exposive though...

[Dave Stanton]

Not sure you would want a tilt switch on a car bomb, most use timers.

Dave

[raden]

In message , Andrew Gabriel writes

I thought TNT being a high explosive required percussive ignition. According to my grandfather, who was an industrial chemist, it's quite stable stuff otherwise.

[Phil Addison]

We did the TNT synthesis too, and I'm sure it was tri-, not mono- or dinitrotoluene (at least that was what "chalky" our teacher claimed we were making, and the reaction theory backed it up). It could be that his intention was to terrify us, and if so he was successful as we all were very wary after being told to be careful not shake it in case it exploded.

Phil The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at

NOSPAM from address to email me

[Andy Hall]

I wonder if teachers still have nicknames that last for generations.

I guess that "chalky" was because his name was "White"?

I had a number of teachers who had been at the school that I went to and its predecessor for most of their working lives and I have elderly relatives who were taught by them and knew them by the same nicknames, so the names had stuck for a good 30-40 years.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Phil Addison]

From

"In a refined form, TNT is one of the most stable of high explosives and can be stored over long periods of time. It is relatively insensitive to blows or friction. It is nonhygroscopic and does not form sensitive compounds with metals, but it is readily acted upon by alkalies to form unstable compounds that are very sensitive to heat and impact."

Is 'refined' the key to this?

Phil The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at

NOSPAM from address to email me

[G&M]

Sodium/potassium.

[raden]

Probably

Apparently during the war, they used to send it around the factory in a molten state through pipes

[Owain]

"raden" wrote [TNT] | Apparently during the war, they used to send it around the | factory in a molten state through pipes

That was so Hans Blix wouldn't see them pushing it about in wheelbarrows.

Owain

[Sunbeam]

Many thanks to each and all for the responses. I had no idea that my little message would provoke such an interesting thread. It recalled some of my own experiences in chem labs at school and later in life. I'm still looking for a small qty of mercury though.

Thanks

Sunbeam

[Pete C]

Hi,

How small and what for? One or a few mercury tilt switches might have enough, or try:

cheers, Pete.

[Sunbeam]

Thanks Pete,

Also thanks for the google link, I'm fairly sure that I have already looked at most if not all of them. I'm not sure of the quantity but prolly about

150-200 grams (it is now quite late in the day and I could be miles out). As my op said this is for refilling a mercury barometer, perhaps several. I'm quite sure this stuff does exist in the wild. The idea of buying tilt switches and wrecking them for the contents doesn't really do it for me but thanks for the suggestion.

Sunbeam