7 Sep
2004
7 Sep
'04
4:36 p.m.
From: "William Donzelli"
<aw288(a)osfn.org>
Hi
People that made hats used to use mercury ( I don't know what for )
but that is where the term "Mad as a Hatter" came from. The vapor
was known to cause mental problems as well as other physical problems.
Maybe it is already too late for Sellam. Remember his Altar comment.
A sure sign he is missing some marbles.
I used to handle the stuff a lot when I was a kid and it hasn't
hardly effected me ( has it? ).
Dwight
I suspect the hazmat team over reacted just a
little.
This is often the case - the hazmat guys I have talked to have been pretty
reasonable, but due to public pressure, they often have to put on a show.
Mercury in elemental form is not all that
dangerous ( or
most of us old timers would be dead or vegetables by now ).
It is most dangerous as salts or as long term exposure
to vapor.
Finally someone speaks the truth! Elemental mercury mostly passes thru the
body in one big blob, and very little is absorbed. I think it is rarely
used as an antibiotic, as well.
The compounds are the nasty things, as they due damage pretty
quickly. Also, mercury vapor is also very dangerous *even in short
periods of exposure*! The poor guys in South America that purify gold thru
amalgamation (and the subsequent vaporizing to get the mercury back) tend
to have very short lives if they are not careful.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
7 Sep
7 Sep
4:50 p.m.
On Tue, 7 Sep 2004, Dwight K. Elvey wrote:
Maybe it is already too late for Sellam. Remember his
Altar comment.
A sure sign he is missing some marbles.
I think that happened long before the mercury came along :)
I used to handle the stuff a lot when I was a kid and
it hasn't
hardly effected me ( has it? ).
That certainly explains things ;)
My high school chemistry teacher let us roll it around in our hands for a
short period of time. He was one of those old-school chemists that knew
the real dangers and saftey margins of this kind of stuff and was common
sense about it. Any other teacher would have gone hysterical I'm sure.
He used to go by Doc. If you called him by his proper name he would
ignore you.
One very interesting sensation is plunging your finger into a container of
mercury.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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7:36 p.m.
Rumor has it that Vintage Computer Festival may have mentioned these words:
Silver - it was used "back in the day" to soften silver used in dentistry.
They have since found other compounds to do that, but...
On Tue, 7 Sep 2004, Dwight K. Elvey wrote:
> I used to handle the stuff a lot when I was a kid and it hasn't
> hardly effected me ( has it? ).
That's the confusing part - you can't tell. My grandfather and I got in a
somewhat heated discussion one day about the safety of things like
soldering, lead handling, and whatnot.
My grandfather said rather emphatically - "I've used my teeth on lead
sinkers my whole life, and have been soldering just as long - it's *never*
affected me! I'm still an intelligent individual in command of my faculties!"
I replied: "I'm not doubting you're a smart guy. But how do you know the
lead didn't affect you? Without that lead in your system you might have
been twice as smart as you are now."
That pretty much ended the heated part of the discussion.
At times, I still wonder about that, about *myself*. I can't hack code
nearly as well as I could, my memory *sucks*, and sometimes seems to be
getting worse... Could it be the lead? Who knows...
...and then I remember the one thing that my grandfather and I agreed on
that day:
You can't let "fear of personal safety" get in the way of life. Reasonable
precautions are fine and dandy, but when you stop living life due to the
"perceived dangers..." Might as well put a mercury-filled bullet thru the
brain.
My high school chemistry teacher let us roll it around
in our hands for a
short period of time.
I didn't have a chance to do that, but...
One very interesting sensation is plunging your finger
into a container of
mercury.
I actually did talk my chem. teacher into letting me do this. I didn't have
access to a lot of mercury, and she made me wear a plastic glove (it was
actually quite thin, so it didn't hamper the experience) - the mercury was
only deep enough to reach the first knuckle, but that was enough to
experience the 'sensation' - it's tough to describe.
=-=-=-=-=-=-= and =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Rumor has it that William Donzelli may have mentioned these words:
Compounds in
mercury? Such as?
Mercury can combine with lots of things. Probably the most common is the
ore, cinnebar. I think it can even be part of some organic
compounds.
*That* is what would scare me "just enough" to not drink it.
Also: Once drunk, *it's gotta go somewhere.* Once done, I poop it, right?
No big deal, you say, right? Erm... then it goes to the processing station,
then into the river in which a *ton* of fish live that I like to eat, which
I can't eat anymore because it's combined with *their organic systems*
making it more readily available to hit my bloodstream. Yes, there is
enough American Indian in me to know about the "circle of life" and I don't
wanna frell with that.
Erm... no. I think I'll pass on poisoning a bajillion fish just to feel
some weird liquid metal rolling around in my gut.
But you go ahead, Sellam. I'm not stopping you! You're on the left coast,
which I doubt I'll have money to visit for quite some time. But if I do,
remind me not to eat seafood, eh? ;-P
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger | JC: "Like those people in
Celeronville!"
sysadmin, Iceberg Computers | Me: "Don't you mean Silicon Valley???"
zmerch(a)30below.com | JC: "Yea, that's the place!"
| JC == Jeremy Christian
7:57 p.m.
On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Roger Merchberger wrote:
But you go ahead, Sellam. I'm not stopping you!
You're on the left coast,
which I doubt I'll have money to visit for quite some time. But if I do,
remind me not to eat seafood, eh? ;-P
I'll be passing (get it? "passing"?) through the Great Lakes area around
the time I plan this little "experiment" :)
Seriously, I do not intend to drink this stuff. That would be silly.
What I'm really planning to do is make mercury eyedrops for a Halloween
costume experiment.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
11:33 p.m.
New subject: Completely and totally off-topic and without any meritwhatsoever
Hi,
Roger Merchberger <zmerch(a)30below.com> said:
My grandfather said rather emphatically -
"I've used my teeth on lead
sinkers my whole life, and have been soldering just as long - it's *never*
affected me! I'm still an intelligent individual in command of my faculties!"
I replied: "I'm not doubting you're a smart guy. But how do you know the
lead didn't affect you? Without that lead in your system you might have
been twice as smart as you are now."
That pretty much ended the heated part of the discussion.
I've been soldering for the past 48 years or so and I've done a *lot*
of shooting and bullet casting, so my exposure to metallic lead has
been very high. Beacuse I was taken ill a few years ago with something
that could be, remotely, explained by heavy metal poisening I was
thouroughly tested for lead. My lead levels are right in the middle
of the expected levels for someone living in an urban environment,
so my uptake of lead from my activities must have been minimal.
The trouble is my brain works 100% normally and about 50% when I get
tired, and not at all before my first cup of coffee in the morning :-)
--
Cheers,
Stan Barr stanb(a)dial.pipex.com
The future was never like this!
11 Sep
11 Sep
1:58 p.m.
New subject: Get me out of here! (Plus mercury, ET-3400 docs, bogus checks, etc.)
Another Charlie/Frances survivor signing in . . . if Ivan rears his
ugly head around here, I think it will be time for me to seriously
consider moving to a non-hurricane-infested locale . . .
Since Charlie hit, we have been without electricity for a total
of 11 days -- and most of those days temps were in the mid
90s (F). So, no hot water or cooking facilities, two refrigerators
full of spoiled food, approx. 80 gallons of debris I've fished out of
our swimming pool (so far) . . . one more hurricane and I'll call it
quits on Florida.
On a more positive note -- we are still alive!
---
Re mercury:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf(a)siconic.com>
My high school chemistry teacher let us roll it around
in our hands for a
short period of time. He was one of those old-school chemists that knew
the real dangers and saftey margins of this kind of stuff and was common
sense about it. Any other teacher would have gone hysterical I'm sure.
He used to go by Doc. If you called him by his proper name he would
ignore you.
My high school chem instructor had a nifty trick which I saw him perform
more than once. He would swallow about a fluid ounce of mercury, then
stand on his head. The mercury would roll back from his stomach into
his mouth, and then he'd spit it back into the flask.
---
Re ET-3400 docs: James mentioned a number of documents, then said:
I can scan these if there is interest in them.
I'm interested. Please let me know when they're available.
---
Re the bogus bank check scam:
Someone tried this on me -- they placed an order for a large quantity
of transistors and ICs on my Web site and wanted to send a bank check
for a few thousand $$$ over the amount of the purchase.
Some folks here suggested agreeing to the deal and then playing games
with the scammer ("my dog ate it"), and someone else proposed calling
the issuing bank to verify funds -- which sounds good, except that if the
check is counterfeit or forged, funds verification is meaningless.
Here's what the VP at my bank said: DO NOT accept delivery of any
such check. If it turns out to be stolen or counterfeited, mere possession
of it may be a crime and could lead to unpleasant visits by the FBI or other
non-desirable characters. Stay well away from contact with anyone
who suggests this "method of payment."
---
Best regards to everyone on the list,
Glen Goodwin
http://www.acme-sales.net
Electronic parts and more
9:14 p.m.
New subject: Get me out of here! (Plus mercury, ET-3400 docs, bogus checks, etc.)
In message <025a01c49852$d9c31ec0$0a4f0945@thegoodw>
"Glen Goodwin" <acme(a)gbronline.com> wrote:
Another Charlie/Frances survivor signing in . . . if
Ivan rears his
ugly head around here, I think it will be time for me to seriously
consider moving to a non-hurricane-infested locale . . .
Good plan.
Since Charlie hit, we have been without electricity
for a total
of 11 days -- and most of those days temps were in the mid
90s (F).
Mmm. Sunbathing weather :)
(just kidding)
At this moment in time, my ADSL connection is running again (after two days
spent going up and down like a jack-in-the-box) - the question is 'how long
will it stay up for?'... Two failures in two days, all related to the same
thing - a "major equipment failure" at the local exchange. One can only
wonder what BT's policy on preventive maintenance is. I'm guessing somewhere
along the lines of "Waste of time". Gits.
So, no hot water or cooking facilities, two
refrigerators
full of spoiled food, approx. 80 gallons of debris I've fished out of
our swimming pool (so far) . . . one more hurricane and I'll call it
quits on Florida.
Kinda puts the torrential rain we've had in the UK in perspective....
On a more positive note -- we are still alive!
And that's the important thing :)
Later.
--
Phil. | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6GB,
philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com | ViewFinder, 10BaseT Ethernet, 2-slice,
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/ | 48xCD, ARCINv6c IDE, SCSI
.... Earthquakes are Earth's way of saying, WAKE UP !!!!!!!!!!
8 Sep
8 Sep
7:51 a.m.
At 06:36 PM 9/7/04 -0700, you wrote:
That was back when they made beaver hats. I think the mercury was used
for tanning/treating the beaver hides. I used to live in California (yes,
me in the People's Republic!) A few friends and I dabbled around with
searching for gold and I did some research and found that the old time gold
miners use to crush their gold ore and mix it with mercury. The mercury and
gold would form a semi-liquid amalgam that they would squeeze out by use of
a cheese cloth. They then hollowed out a potato and placed the amalgam in
it and placed it in the embers of their camp fire. The heat would evaporate
the mercury and leave pure gold. You can imagine the amount of mercury
vapor it released!!! However even the 49ers were aware of the dangers of
mercury vapor, they noted that they were carefull leave the area for at
least several days after they put the potato in the fire.
BTW years ago I remember reading a National Geographic article about a
several hundred year old Spanish ship that they had found off the coast of
Florida. This ship was on it's way to the New World when it sank so there
was no gold or silver aboard. However it was carrying a LARGE load of
mercury to be used for gold refining (something like 20-30 tons as as I
recall). The pictures with the article showed huge puddles of liquid
mercury on the sea floor even after all this time. IIRC the finders were
going to try and salvage the mercury since it still had significant value.
Also IIRC the article said that the lose of the ship was a huge fincail
lose to Spain at the time due to the huge quantity of mercury aboard and
it's cost.
Joe
From:
"William Donzelli" <aw288(a)osfn.org>
Hi
People that made hats used to use mercury ( I don't know what for ) I suspect the hazmat team over reacted just a
little.
This is often the case - the hazmat guys I have talked to have been pretty
reasonable, but due to public pressure, they often have to put on a show.
Mercury in elemental form is not all that
dangerous ( or
most of us old timers would be dead or vegetables by now ).
It is most dangerous as salts or as long term exposure
to vapor.
Finally someone speaks the truth! Elemental mercury mostly passes thru the
body in one big blob, and very little is absorbed. I think it is rarely
used as an antibiotic, as well.
The compounds are the nasty things, as they due damage pretty
quickly. Also, mercury vapor is also very dangerous *even in short
periods of exposure*! The poor guys in South America that purify gold thru
amalgamation (and the subsequent vaporizing to get the mercury back) tend
to have very short lives if they are not careful. but that is where the term "Mad as a Hatter"
came from. The vapor
was known to cause mental problems as well as other physical problems.
Maybe it is already too late for Sellam. Remember his Altar comment.
A sure sign he is missing some marbles.
I used to handle the stuff a lot when I was a kid and it hasn't
hardly effected me ( has it? ).
It nevir affecttted meeee (twitch, twitch). :-)
jOe
Dwight
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
7249
days inactive
7254
days old
7 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
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acme＠gbronline.com -
dwight.elvey＠amd.com -
philpem＠dsl.pipex.com -
rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com -
stanb＠dial.pipex.com -
vcf＠siconic.com -
zmerch＠30below.com