In my early days, I supervised a type 3 test equipment calibration lab, at one of the Naval Air Stations. The responsibility of one of my shops was to triple distill mercury for manometers and other mercury using devices that were used by type 2 labs. During a visit to a dentist, one of the employees from another lab was advised to see a doctor. It turned out that he was suffering from mercury poisining. I too remember playing with mercury and coating dimes. Mercury was also used in gold panning to reclaim minute specks of gold. I was told that the combination was then squeezed thru a chamois to seperate the gold from the mercury. In any event, it's dangerous stuff, and if you don't have the proper safety equipment to protect yourself or your family, it's not worth it. There are a lot of alternative and much safer products on the market now-a-days to use instead of taking a chance.
newluger
|