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Mercury is used in thermometers, barometers, manometers, sphygmomanometers, float valves, mercury switches, mercury relays, fluorescent lamps and other devices, although concerns about the element's toxicity have led to the phasing out of such mercury-containing instruments. [11]
A medical mercury-in-glass maximum thermometer showing the temperature of 38.7 °C (101.7 °F). One special kind of mercury-in-glass thermometer, called a maximum thermometer, works by having a constriction in the neck close to the bulb. As the temperature rises, the mercury is pushed up through the constriction by the force of expansion.
Mercury switches are still used in electro-mechanical systems where physical orientation of actuators or rotors is a factor. They are also commonly used in vending machines and pinball tables , and used to be common in slot machines , for tilt alarms that detect when someone tries to rock or tilt the machine to make it vend a product or affect ...
The tradition remains today with the name of the element mercury, where chemists decided the planetary name was preferable to common names like "quicksilver", and in a few archaic terms such as lunar caustic (silver nitrate) and saturnism (lead poisoning). [4] [5] Lead, corresponding with Saturn ♄ Tin, corresponding with Jupiter ♃ ()
Calomel/horn quicksilver/horn mercury – mercury(I) chloride, a very poisonous purgative formed by subliming a mixture of mercuric chloride and metallic mercury, triturated in a mortar and heated in an iron pot. The crust formed on the lid was ground to powder and boiled with water to remove the calomel.
Gold and mercury were often used by alchemists (including Brahe) in medicines, and it was common for alchemists to link the Earth’s elements to properties in space and the human body. And there ...
Zinc amalgam finds use in organic synthesis (e.g., for the Clemmensen reduction). [3] It is the reducing agent in the Jones reductor, used in analytical chemistry.Formerly the zinc plates of dry batteries were amalgamated with a small amount of mercury to prevent deterioration in storage.
Organomercury compounds contain at least one carbon bonded to a mercury atom, shown here. Organomercury chemistry refers to the study of organometallic compounds that contain mercury. Many organomercury compounds are highly toxic, but some are used in medicine, e.g., merbromin ("Mercurochrome") and the vaccine preservative thiomersal. [1]