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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.
Almost all metals can form amalgams with mercury, the notable exceptions being iron, platinum, tungsten, and tantalum. Silver-mercury amalgams are important in dentistry, and gold-mercury amalgam is used in the extraction of gold from ore. Dentistry has used alloys of mercury with metals such as silver, copper, indium, tin and zinc.
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 ...
To fabricate an amalgam filling, the dentist uses a mixing device to blend roughly equal parts (by mass) of shavings of a silver-base alloy with mercury until the shavings are thoroughly wetted. The silver alloy is typically 40–70% Ag, 25-29% Sn, 2–40% Cu and 0–2% Zn (when the alloy is formulated Zn is a scavenger and is mostly consumed ...
Overexposure to mercury, mercury poisoning (mercurialism), was seen as an occupational disease to the ancient Romans. Though people in ancient South America often used cinnabar for art, or processed it into refined mercury (as a means to gild silver and gold to objects), the toxic properties of mercury were well known.
Mercury retrograde refers to the period of time when Mercury moves slower than the Earth around the sun – causing it to appear to spin backward in the night sky.
A 175-watt mercury-vapor light approximately 15 seconds after starting. A closeup of a 175-W mercury-vapor lamp. The small diagonal cylinder at the bottom of the arc tube is a resistor which supplies current to the starter electrode. A mercury-vapor lamp is a gas-discharge lamp that uses an electric arc through vaporized mercury to produce ...