Floating an anvil in liquid mercury - video

[Jon]

Floating an anvil in liquid mercury.

Previously:

Quenching an anvil in a river, with an excavator - GIF
Making an anvil from a railroad rail GIF

[mklotz]

If you could get a pool of mercury large enough, the earth would float in it...

density of earth = 5.5 gm/cm^3
density of mercury = 13.6 gm/cm^3

Actually, probably most of the planets, including the gas giants, as well as the sun would float in mercury.

Osmium (element 76) is the densest element that occurs naturally. Not very useful for floating stuff since it only melts around 3000 degC.

[Moby Duck]

I hope you all realise how toxic mercury is. I gives off toxic fumes at room temperature. Don't try this at home.

[Toolmaker51]

I hope you all realise how toxic mercury is. I gives off toxic fumes at room temperature. Don't try this at home.

I might have a pot to whiz in, but no moat of mercury OR anvil. So I'm good?
IIRC Marv pointed out elemental mercury is relatively safe, offgassed vapor and salts were not. Knowing the temperature is key?

[Frank S]

Moby Duck you may be confusing dimethyl mercury, [(CH3)2Hg], is a form of organic mercury with inorganic mercury (Hg 0), specifically mercury metal, liquid mercury, or quicksilver I can't begin to estimate the number of dental amalgams (50% mercury, with the rest being silver, copper, tin, and zinc) have been used to fill cavities in teeth, nor how long they were and probably still are being used.
This is not to say that liquid mercury does not have any toxicity because it does Maybe George Orwell said it best “All kinds of mercury are toxic, but some kinds of mercury are more toxic than others.” Or something like that, anyway.

[Bony]

The term "mad as a hatter" was coined because milliners (hat makers) used liquid mercury to remove the hair off rabbit skins to make felt. It was the mercury vapour and contact with the metal which poisoned them. Dental amalgam becomes a non poisonous alloy of mercury. If that helps.

[Wespete66]

Maybe it is just me, but... Does anyone else wonder about the condition of a guy who has several gallons of mercury hanging around, and to store it in used antifreeze jugs?
But yeah, very interesting how that stuff acts.

[mklotz]

Maybe it is just me, but... Does anyone else wonder about the condition of a guy who has several gallons of mercury hanging around, and to store it in used antifreeze jugs?
But yeah, very interesting how that stuff acts.

I wondered about that too.

Drop one of those on a hard surface like concrete and it would probably rupture, turning your driveway into an instant superfund site.

As an aside, if you play with mercury, first remove your gold jewelry. Mercury readily forms an amalgam with gold. That's why it was used in gold refining. Heating the resultant amalgam to vaporize the mercury probably accounted for more than a few dead miners.

For a neat visualization of the amalgamating process, watch this...

[Jon]

I wonder how he afforded all that mercury. There must be different grades or purities available for purchase.

[bob47907]

When I was young, say 6 yrs, my Dad would bring home mercury switches for me to play with.

Inevitably, the glass envelope would break and I would chase the little blobs around on the wood floor in the living room… good times.