top of page

Mercury Hg

 

Where is mercury used--or where does it impact your everyday life?

 

Now limited in household use because of its toxicity

 

Mercury     symbol: Hg
Atomic number: 80     Atomic Mass:  200.5
Position on the periodic table: Transition Metal    Period number: 6
Melting point: -38.8  oC   (-37.8 oF)
Boiling point: 356.7 oC   ( 674.1 oF)
Reaction with air (oxygen): when heated 2Hg + O2 --> 2HgO

No reaction with water

Electron configuration: [Xe] 6s2 4f14 5d10
Source: LANL.gov
Researcher: Nico Z

 

 

 

 

Thermometers used to contain mercury, but now contain coloured alcohol or hexane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Electrical switches used to contain mercury because, when tripped, the mercury flowed to complete a circuit.

Photographed is a thermostat switch.

 

 

Mercury vapor lamps are very efficient.  The light is produced with an electric arc (an arc is a continuous spark produced when the electricity passes in the space between two electrodes producing light.  The light is a bright, white light when mercury vapor is used in a quartz inner bulb surrounded by heat resistant borosilicate glass.

 

 

WIS photographer

 

Mercury is toxic.  Mercury batteries are now obsolete and are no longer made.  Mercuric nitrate was used to help separate fur from the skin to make felt for top hats.  The Hatter in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland was eccentric and mirrors the mentl instability and tremors suffered by hatters of the time.  The image comes from the area where Lewis Carroll bought a house for his six sisters and often visited: Guildford, Surrey, UK--and where he died.

 

 

 

 

 

Mercury cells (batteries) were replaced by lithium ion batteries.  Here this one notes 0% Hg - no mercury

Mercury devices on display at the National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, USA.  A thermometer and an early altimeter which measured the pressure

An older, mercury medical thermometer.  The scale on the thermometer only covers 10 degrees in the critical, body temperature range.  Also, a mercury medical thermometer has a slight constriction in the mercury column so that the mercury level remains the same, even after removal from the mouth.  the thermometer has to be shaken again to get the column connected and ready for a new temperature to be taken (after sterilization).

All electronic signs are called "neon" but different gases in the disharge tube, where a low pressure gas is exposed to a high voltage, will produce different colors dependent on the nature/type of gas and whether mercury vapor is also present as well as the nature of the glass.

Mercury can form blue lights.

WIS Photographer

A mercury barometer from the 1880s.  The Fitzroy  domestic barometer was viewed in the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth UK.

WIS Photographer

Toricelli--the inventor of the mercury barometer

National Maritime Museum, Falmouth, UK

WIS Photographer

Early thermometer from the 1730s viewed at the National Maritime Museum, Falmouth, UK

WIS Photographer

bottom of page