Mercury as a poison has been known for ages. The story of the "Mad Hatter"
stems from the fact that hat makers would use mercury containing dyes in
their paints and touch the brushes to their tongues before applying them to
the hats leading to long term chronic poisoning.
The other case was a Japanese fishing village. I believe the name was
Minamata and the mercury spilling into the water system from industry got
into fish leading to mercury poisoning in the inhabitants who consumed the
fish.
The former was pre 1900 although may not have been recognised. The Minamata
thing was a major public health exercise and occurred in the 20th century
possibly around the 50's and 60's as far as I can remember although I wasn't
living back then ;)
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Hermanson" <omtech@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 11:30 PM
Subject: Re: [OM] mercury batteries-OT story
> I remember kids in school (6th grade I think) pressing mercury into
pocket
> change with their fingers. It would make coins real shiny, temporarily
> atleast. Even back then I thought maybe that it wasn't a good idea to
touch
> it. When was it decided that mercury was poisonous? Didn't teachers
know
> then (1964?)
>
> John Hermanson
> ___________________________________
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> ___________________________________
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Gardner" <mlgardner99@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 6:04 PM
> Subject: Re: [OM] mercury batteries-OT story
>
>
> |
> |
> | "Timpe, Jim" wrote:
> | >
> | > How many of us 'played' with mercury as kids? Remember watching it
> 'ball
> | > up' and roll so oddly about???
> | >
> | > Anybody seen the mad-hatter about lately?
> |
> | I remember in junior high school in the late 60's, the science teacher
> | had a small jar of
> | mercury he would get out from time to time and let some of us handle
> | it. Maybe he knew what
> | he was doing as he was a bit of a sadist anyway. His idea of punishment
> | was to hand a disruptive student a stack of textbooks that you had to
> | hold out at arm's length in front of you and walk up and down the
> | hallway X number of times. If you faltered, you got to start over
> | again.
> |
> | Payback came on graduation night when someone firmly planted a large raw
> | potato into the end of the exhaust pipe on his car. Unfortunately for
> | him, when he started his car, his muffler was the weak link.
> | Kaboom! :0
> |
> | Mike Gardner
> |
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> |
> |
>
>
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>
>
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