12-01-2008, 10:43 PM
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Turn it up!
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Join Date: May 2001
Location: Music City
Posts: 9,293
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Oldfart
Mercury takes a long time to absorb, and the couple of pearls probably coalesced into one.
Hatmakers used the stuff for years on a daily skin-contact basis before their poisoning hit critical levels.
At Teachers College it was a diversion to chase mercury around a glass plate and watch it break up and join up again.
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Mercury poisoning, & its tendency to nibble away at the brain, led to the expression "mad as a hatter". I knew about hatmakers' use of mercury, but never knew exactly why; thanks OF.
Another example of how it's a miracle that any of our generation survived to adulthood, my mother thought nothing of letting me keep the mercury from a broken thermometer in a little plastic box to play with. Nope, no face shield, no hazmat suit, I just picked it up (or tried to) with my bare fingers.
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