In article ,
Christopher Tidy wrote:

Joseph Gwinn wrote:
In article ,
Christopher Tidy wrote:


ATP* wrote:


Some idiot science teacher in a local middle school sprinkled a small
amount
of mercury on a lab table to show the kids how the drops roll. That
episode
cost the school district a few thousand dollars in monitoring and cleanup.
If a quart of mercury was dropped, there would be a financial disaster.

This is sad, and quite unnecessary. You pick up all the drops, and check
it isn't spilt under the bench, and you'll be fine. Anything remaining
which is too small to see is insufficient to cause harm. The biggest
danger is if you get a hidden spill, which doesn't get cleaned up.


In the 1960s, the standard lab cleanup approach for spilled mercury was
to sprinkle flowers of sulfur on the floor, sweep it around, wait a
while, and vacuum it all up. One can do this periodically to catch
undetected spills, as the sulfur is cheap and harmless.

The sulphur is a common method, although I have read at least once that
it is ineffective. I would be interested to know if this is true.

I've heard the assertion, but don't know if it's true either. I'm a
little suspicious, because sulfur was considered effective for at least
a century, that is until mercury became anathema.

The Handbook of Batteries used to have a section on mercury batteries.
In older sections, it said that you could extend the shelf life of a
mercury battery by freezing it (true of all batteries, actually), and
gave a helpful little chart plotting life versus storage temperature.
(The battery doesn't really freeze in a domestic freezer.) In later
editions, the section became vestigal, and it was claimed that freezing
didn't help, but no reference was cited, or reason given for the change.
Then it disappeared altogether. You can probably guess the timeframe.
And motivation.


The vacuum cleaner is a really bad idea. It will just help to vaporise
any remaining liquid mercury.

Not if the flowers of sulfur are along for the ride. That was the whole
point of using flowers of sulfur.

Joe Gwinn