kwstag Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 I will try to do so tomorrow. It's from those spiral looking ones, I will take a picture later. I don't think this is illegal but if it is I will do it anyway because I enjoy chemistry related things. Anyway after looking at the "lamp", (it's more of a lightbulb energy saver type) I had noticed it said Hg on the middle approximately. I then read the back of the package and noticed it said: CAUTION - Hg, LAMP CONTAINS MERCURY. So tomorrow I will take a couple and disect them and see how much Hg is available from each bulb. They are rather heavy for lightbulbs so that could possibly mean theres a little bit of Hg, a useful amount. This can also be a failed extraction but I have hope that it will be a successfull one. Pics / Info tomorrow when I begin. Thanks,kwstag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUUUUUN Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Flourescant(sp?) light bulbs (the double helix ones) container mercury vapor, so I don't think you will get very much, if you can extract any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douchermann Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Yeah like he said. Those are mercury vapor lamps. They don't have a liquid mercury inside them. You'd have to 'open' it in a sealed chamber so that the mercury vapor would condense in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Boom Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 I've not heard of anyone attempting to capture the vapor out of one of those bulds with any success. Due to the fact they are either pressurized or vac-packed with the vapor. Perhaps you could distill enough out of several bulbs by opening them under the surface of iso-alcohol in a vat but still- You'd have to be absolutely sure about protecting yourself from mercury exposure especially in repeated instances where you might be trying to concentrate your yield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogue Chemist Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Get a big long PVC pipe. Build a condensor jacket around it. Insert fluorescent bulbs, with a single turn of nichrome around them. Seal the PVC pip off, start water flowing through the condensor jacket, apply current to the nichrome, it should crack open the bulbs. Wait for Hg to condense and open up and drain it off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douchermann Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 I like Dr. Boom's idea about opening them under a liquid. The problem is that the liquid would go everywhere due to the sudden displacement. Unless you have the kind of bulb that has the small peice of glass inside the large peice of glass. Rogue Chemist's idea is a little elaborate. You would not need to cool the mercury vapor as it boils at 327C or something like that. Even a couple hundred kPa under 760 and it would liquidfy under room temp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hashashan Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 why wont you just buy thermometers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquaman Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 Isn't todays thermometers made with red colored alcohol or something like that insted of the mercury (safety reasons?)? Not sure but you could still probably find older thermometers with mercury in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 You can still get mercury thermometers, probably just not in your school. They still have to be used for higher temp thermometers. I believe the red, green, and blue liquid ones can only go to 110C with some going to 150C max. Mercury can go to 300 or so I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hashashan Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 actualy i was talking about the medical thermometers. in my country there is no problem getting those. i believe there will b no problems geting them in the US also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douchermann Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 I think hes more interested in actually extracting the mercury from the lights. But for a source of mercury you can get thermometers like mumbles was talking, but frankly those thermometers are more useful than the mercury inside. You can buy elemental mercury online, you just have to look for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psymon Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Some door bells have mecury switches in them. I mean quite old door bells. Oh and a very old one handed joystick. I found one of the switches and kept it safe for ages, then one day I dropped it, the glass broke and the mecury went everywhere. I wouldnt like to touch the stuff its pretty toxic. It gets in through the skin and softens bones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mephistos Minion Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 I have about 10g of Hg I got from tilt switches availiable at Dick Smith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Another source would be themostats. The analog ones have 2 switches inside them. That's around 10-15g, as I would say they are around .5mL a piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swany Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Agreed with Mumbles about the thermostats. I have 100mls (3lbs) of Hg that I bought over the web for a very reasonable price, for the volume. It is hardly effecient to find 200 thermostats and then dissemble them. The toxicity of Hg seems to be blown out of proportion by the media and such. It will not be readily absorbed through skin due to surface tension. When swallowed it goes right through you, literally. Only 1% is absorbed, the rest.... yeah. Inhalation of vapors is the only rational concern. Even this isn't too extreme, due to the liquid properties of Hg and it is therefor not going to evaporate at an appreciable rate. Worst case scenario: atomised Hg in a closed enviroment evaporates and you are poisoned. Sound reasonable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douchermann Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 Yeah, I'm with swany on that one. Heh, were you a tad surprised the first time you picked up that bottle of mercury? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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