In article , Jim Wilkins
wrote:

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote in message
. 4.170...
Joe Gwinn fired this volley in
:

Flowers of sulfur may be purchased from agricultural supply stores.


Plain 'dusting sulfur' is far less expensive, and still about 95%
elemental sulfur.

However, that method is a sort of "folk remedy" that doesn't work as
well
as touted. The problem is that elemental mercury and elemental
sulfur
don't react very rapidly at STP. It takes some method of adding
energy
(heat, in this case) by processes like high-shear mixing or ball
milling
to accomplish the task effectively. And even with a "tuned" ball
mill (a
subject pretty dear to my heart!), it takes about 90 minutes of
vigorous
milling to fully react all the mercury into black cinnibar.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...=web&cd=1&ved=
0CB8QFjAAahUKEwieiuXzk_7GAhWCJj4KHYudCmQ&url=http% 3A%2F%
2Fdigital.csic.es%2Fbitstream%2F10261%2F7692%2F1%2 FDISPOSAL%
2520ELEMENTALHg.pdf&ei=qKG3VZ6WLoLN-
AGLu6qgBg&usg=AFQjCNEbqz36y_ZmrzwHgSOb55Xc7I1CQQ&s ig2=AjPUqJ-
MVVZEqCZ8XWqHxA&cad=rja

Sorry for the long link. This is a pdf explaining processes used to
stabilize mercury for recovery or disposal.

Lloyd

We student chemists were taught that the sulfur reacts with any
exposed metallic surfaces and thus blocks evaporation. It made the
room safe to use until the flooring had to be removed for some other
reason.

Exactly. This was the standard approach, to suppress the vapor. It
was not a folk remedy at all.

The solution to runaway blobs hiding in odd places was to use a lot of
sulfur (which is cheap), enough to ensure that the sulfur got
everywhere it needed to. The stuff in the cracks was just left there,
mercury and sulfur alike.

They probably didn't get rid of what I spilled in High School until
they replaced the building, almost 50 years later.

If only we hadn't spilled that mercury - we would all have been
Einsteins.

Joe Gwinn