23 Mar
2006
23 Mar
'06
1:21 p.m.
From: "Scott Quinn" <compoobah at valleyimplants.com>
Not much use I can think of in computing, but in other things quite
useful. Most
obvious is gold prospecting,
also used in other metalwork (tempering bath), and in
a hobby that will
not be named to remove lead that is stuck to steel.
Also vacuum pumps for home particle accelerators.
If you go back far enough, mercury was used in memories (mercury delay line
in some early British machines).
It is also often used in high speed relays, especially for teleprinter type
circuits - we had some mainframe / telegraph interfaces with mercury wetted
relays in them, in operation, until about 8 years ago
Jim.