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Registered Member #1822
Joined: Fri Nov 21 2008, 08:04PM
Location:
Posts: 300
I am buying some mercury this evening for $6/LB. I am going to buy 2LB so I can have some left over to play with. Are the rectifiers as simple as they look?
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
In a word, No.
Conditions inside the valve envelope must be such that mercury vapour condenses on the walls of the tube, and trickles back down to the bottom, where it is again recycled . Thermal equilibrium is only achievable over a limited ambient temperature range.
Mercury vapour rectifiers produce both strong RFI, and strong UV, both of which must be guarded against.
Here is the data sheet of the once very popular 816:
Registered Member #1822
Joined: Fri Nov 21 2008, 08:04PM
Location:
Posts: 300
I would advise any one against making an MAR. I bought 14LBs and now I have been contacted by local detectives and even an EPA special agent. I didnt even know that they had those. It is simply way too much trouble.
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
Yeah, I'd like to know too, and I think it would be interesting information for other forum members. So, much appreciated if you could tell us what went on.
Registered Member #1822
Joined: Fri Nov 21 2008, 08:04PM
Location:
Posts: 300
Basicly they wanted to know why I have it, who I got it from and confirm that I am aware of how to handle it and the (legal)consequences of mishandling it.
I bought the mercury off of some guy and if your willing to drive all of the way to southern Ohio you can just have it.
Registered Member #2463
Joined: Wed Nov 11 2009, 03:49AM
Location:
Posts: 1546
If you spilled metalic mercury in a home built of wood and gypsum there would be no easy of preventing traces from being detected. Years after a shop where mercury instruments were repaired, a testing company checked the air for vapor. I stomped on the floor at the wall line and under a flashlight globules of mercury still could be seen.Since mercury was extensively used in the days before 4-20 milliamp instrument circuits it surely did affect those working in the instrumentation trade. If you pattern the rectifier after the Cooper-Hewitt, tilt started designs, you will have to have a way to pull a vacuum. The old literature describes it as a highly attenuated form of mercury vapor. A "Torricellian" vacuum space has been known a blue glow for about 400 years. here's an interesting site:
Registered Member #2123
Joined: Sat May 16 2009, 03:10AM
Location: Bend, Oregon
Posts: 312
I played with mercury a lot when I was between 12 and 15 years of age, and I suspect now that I may have poisoned myself somewhat then.
Almost fifteen years later and well-educated on the dangers of mercury, I went to work at Hughes Aircraft in Carlsbad, California in 1981. Someone gave me a tour of the mercury diffusion pump room where they evacuated their CRT's and DVST's they made for the military. It was unbelievable. It was hot in there, and there was small spilled mercury droplets everywhere in crevices on the floor. I left that room immediately.
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Mercury Arc Rectifier
