Including mercury. Why is mercury still often used as a thermometric liquid, even though this substance is dangerous? Because mercury has a number of unique properties that make it irreplaceable. This is a very interesting substance, so we devoted two articles to it. This article discusses the properties of mercury.
Mercury is a chemical element of the periodic table, a simple inorganic substance, a metal. Known to mankind for more than seven thousand years. It was used in the 5th century. BC. in Mesopotamia, mercury was known in Ancient China and the Middle East. It was obtained by simply burning cinnabar over fires, and then used to smelt gold and silver.
Basic properties
It is designated by the symbol Hg (hydrargyrum, translated from Greek as “liquid silver”). This name was given to the element by alchemists.
There is not so much mercury on the planet, but it is very dispersed: it is found in the air, water, and in most rocks. It is found in native form in the form of drops, but rarely. Much more often - in the composition of minerals and clays. It is part of more than 30 minerals; cinnabar (HgS) is of industrial importance. Mercury is now obtained in a much more technologically advanced way than in ancient times, but the meaning of the process remains the same: burning cinnabar.
Silvery, very mobile liquid; the only metal that under normal conditions has a liquid state of aggregation. It becomes solid at t -39 °C. Moreover, mercury is a heavy metal. Due to its high density, 1 liter of reagent weighs almost 14 kg. Conducts current well. Diamagnetic. When heated, it expands evenly - it is thanks to this property that it is still widely used as a thermometric liquid. In the solid state it has malleability characteristic of metals. Practically insoluble in water and does not wet glass. Mercury and its vapors are odorless; the vapors are colorless; when an electric discharge is applied, they glow bluish-green and emit in the X-ray spectrum.
From a chemical point of view
Mercury is quite inert. It reacts with oxygen at +300 °C, and already at +340 °C the oxide decomposes back. Under normal conditions it reacts with ozone. Does not react with non-concentrated acid solutions, but dissolves in aqua regia (a mixture of concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acids) and concentrated nitric acid. Does not react with nitrogen, carbon, boron, silicon, phosphorus, arsenic, germanium. Reacts with atomic hydrogen, but does not react with molecular hydrogen. With halogens it forms mercury halides. With sulfur, selenium, tellurium - chalcogenides. With carbon it forms extremely stable and, as a rule, toxic organomercury compounds.
Under normal conditions, it easily reacts with a solution of potassium permanganate in alkali and with chlorine-containing substances. This property is used to remove mercury spills. The dangerous area is filled with chlorine-containing bleach such as “ACC”, “Belizna” or ferric chloride.
Forms alloys with many metals - amalgams. Iron, tungsten, molybdenum, vanadium and some other metals are resistant to amalgamation. Forms mercurides with metals - intermetallic compounds.
About the dangers of mercury
Mercury belongs to substances of the 1st hazard group, 
super dangerous. Dangerous for humans, plants and animals, and for the environment. It is included in the list of 10 substances that are socially hazardous to health according to WHO. Has a cumulative effect. For more details on how mercury affects the human body and what safety measures should be taken, read our article “”. Here we will only mention that it is not so much mercury that is poisonous as its vapors and soluble compounds. Mercury itself is not absorbed in the human gastrointestinal tract and is excreted unchanged. This was learned from unsuccessful suicides who tried to commit suicide by drinking mercury. They survived! And even intravenous injections of mercury do not lead to death.
Mercury is prohibited from being transported by air. And not at all because it is toxic. The thing is that it easily dissolves aluminum and its alloys. An accidental spill can cause damage to the airframe.
Mercury has unique properties that allow it to be used for a variety of purposes. It must be taken into account that it is deadly to the human body, as it is an extremely toxic metal.
Mercury is element number 80 on D.I. Mendeleev’s periodic table.
Mercury is a transition metal, the only one that, under normal conditions, is in a liquid state.
The general characteristics of mercury consist of its chemical and physical properties.
Physical properties
The metal has a silvery-white color. It has diamagnetic properties, as it can create both solid and liquid alloys - amalgams - with other metals.
In amalgams, metals no longer behave as actively as in a free state. What is the melting point of mercury? Negative -38.83 °C. It begins to evaporate at room temperature at +18 °C, and boils at 356.73 °C.
The magnetic properties of mercury are characterized as follows: it is diamagnetic. It will not be possible to assemble it with a regular magnet.
Chemical properties
This element is a low-active liquid metal and, like noble metals, is stable in dry air.
It reacts with salts, acids and non-metals and has two oxidation states +1 and +2. Mercury does not interact with water, non-oxidizing acids and alkalis.
It reacts chemically with oxygen only when heated above 300 °C, forming mercury oxide.
Use of mercury in industry and in everyday life
Most often, mercury is used to produce chlorine and caustic soda.
Mercury is used to make various scientific instruments: thermometers, polarographs, barometers, vacuum pumps, pressure gauges (used to measure the pressure level of gases and liquids). Today, most electrochemical industries widely use mercury electric current rectifiers.
In medicine, so-called mercury-quartz lamps are widely used, which are used for irradiation with ultraviolet rays; everyone knows thermometers for measuring body temperature. This metal is also used as a disinfectant.
Due to the unique property of the substance to dissolve other metals (except iron, manganese, nickel, cobalt, titanium, tungsten, tantalum, silicon, rhenium and a number of others), forming amalgams, it can be used to soften cadmium, tin and silver, which are used in manufacturing dental fillings
To produce low-temperature thermometers, thallium amalgam is used, which hardens at -60 °C.
We have learned to use the property of mercury, such as evaporation at room temperature, for example, in the oil refining industry for oil purification (mercury vapor helps regulate the temperature of oil refining processes).
Mercury sulfate is used in the chemical industry as a catalyst to produce acetaldehyde from acetylene.
Even in the manufacture of felt, mercury salts are used, and also for tanning leather, as a catalyst during organic synthesis.
In agriculture, a mercury derivative, mercuric chloride HgCl2 (a strong poison), is used to pickle seeds.
During astronomical observations, instruments such as mercury horizons are used, inside of which there is a vessel with mercury, which allows their horizontal surface to be used as a mirror.
Past use of mercury
In past centuries, mercury was not considered a dangerous metal, so it was widely used as an elixir for many ailments. The ancient Greeks and Persians used mercury as an ointment.
In the 2nd century, Chinese alchemists valued mercury for its ability to increase life expectancy and vitality.
An infamous example of mercury use is the death of Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
He died after taking a mercury pill, claiming that it would make him immortal.
Many centuries before our era, mercury and its mineral cinnabar were widely used in Ancient Egypt. It was known there in the third millennium BC. e.
And in Ancient India - two thousand years BC. e.
In Ancient Rome, this metal was also used, as can be learned from the “Natural History” written by Pliny the Elder.
In the Middle Ages, mercury enjoyed particular fame, as alchemists tried to obtain gold with its help and considered it the ancestor of all other metals. In the winter of 1759, mercury was first frozen to a solid state by St. Petersburg academicians M. Lomonosov and A. Brown.
From the Renaissance until the early 20th century, mercury was used primarily to treat diseases that could be sexually transmitted, such as syphilis. After such treatment, many of the patients died.
Danger of mercury for humans
Mercury is dangerous primarily because it is very toxic. Has the highest degree of danger.
Penetrates the human body by inhaling its odorless vapors.
Mercury is toxic even in small concentrations and has a bad effect on the digestive, nervous, immune systems, kidneys, lungs, eyes and skin.
This increases the risk of atherosclerosis, hypertension and tuberculosis.
There are mild, acute and chronic mercury poisoning. Mild poisoning includes digestive poisoning, while acute poisoning includes poisoning in enterprises after an accident or due to non-compliance with safety precautions.
Acute poisoning from this dangerous metal can be fatal. If left untreated, the functions of the central nervous system are disrupted, mental activity decreases, convulsions and exhaustion occur. This is followed by baldness, complete paralysis and loss of vision.
Find out what harm formaldehyde causes to humans from our article.
Source: https://greenologia.ru/othody/metally/rtut/primenenie.html
Mercury: interesting facts
Perhaps mercury is one of the few chemical elements that has a lot of interesting properties, as well as the widest scope of application in the entire history of mankind. Here are just some interesting facts about this chemical element.
First of all, mercury is the only metal and the second (along with bromine) substance that remains in a liquid state at room temperature. It becomes solid only at a temperature of –39 degrees.
But raising it to +356 degrees causes the mercury to boil and turn into toxic steam. Due to its density, it has a high specific gravity (see the article The heaviest metals in the world).
So, 1 liter of the substance weighs more than 13 kilograms.
Cast iron core floats in mercury
In nature, it can be found in its pure form - interspersed with small drops in other rocks.
But most often mercury was extracted by burning the mercury mineral cinnabar.
Also, the presence of mercury can be found in sulfide minerals, shales, etc.
Due to its color, in ancient times this metal was even identified with living silver, as evidenced by one of its Latin names: argentum vivum. And this is no wonder, because being in its natural state - liquid, it is able to “run” faster than water.
Due to its excellent electrical conductivity, mercury is widely used in the manufacture of lighting fixtures and switches. But mercury salts are used in the manufacture of various substances, from antiseptics to explosives.
Humanity has been using mercury for more than 3,000 years. Due to its toxicity, it was actively used by ancient chemists to extract gold, silver, platinum and other metals from ore.
This method, called amalgatation, was later forgotten and was returned to only in the 16th century.
Perhaps it was thanks to him that the mining of gold and silver by the colonizers of South America at one time reached colossal proportions.
A special place in the use of mercury in the Middle Ages was its use in mystical rituals. Sprayed red cinnabar powder, according to shamans and magicians, was supposed to scare away evil spirits. “Living silver” was also used to extract gold alchemically.
But mercury became a metal only in 1759, when Mikhail Lomonosov and Joseph Brown were able to prove this fact.
Despite its toxicity, mercury was actively used by ancient healers in the treatment of various diseases. Based on it, medications and potions were made to treat various skin diseases.
It was part of diuretics and laxatives and was used in dentistry. And the yogis of ancient India, according to the notes of Marco Polo, drank a drink based on sulfur and mercury, which extended their life and gave them strength.
There are also known cases of Chinese healers making “immortality pills” based on this metal.
In medical practice, there are known cases of using mercury in the treatment of volvulus.
According to doctors of those times, due to its physical properties, “liquid silver” was supposed to pass through the intestines, straightening them.
But this method did not take root, as it had very disastrous results - patients died from intestinal rupture.
Today in medicine, mercury can only be found in thermometers that measure body temperature. But even in this niche it is gradually being replaced by electronics.
But despite the attributed beneficial properties, mercury also has destructive properties on the human body.
So, according to scientists, the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible became a victim of mercury “treatment”.
During the exhumation of his remains, modern experts established that the Russian sovereign died as a result of mercury intoxication, which he received during treatment for syphilis.
The use of mercury salts was also disastrous for medieval hat makers.
Gradual poisoning by mercury vapor became the cause of dementia, called the mad hatter's disease.
This fact was reflected in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The author perfectly depicted this illness in the image of the Mad Hatter.
But using mercury for the purpose of suicide, on the contrary, was not successful. There are known facts when people drank it or made intravenous mercury injections. And they all remained alive.
Uses of mercury
In the modern world, mercury has found wide application in electronics, where components based on it are used in all kinds of lamps and other electrical equipment; it is used in medicine for the production of certain medicines and in agriculture for seed processing. Mercury is used to produce paint that is used to paint ships. The fact is that colonies of bacteria and microorganisms can form on the underwater part of the ship, which destroy the hull. Mercury-based paint prevents this destructive effect. This metal is also used in oil refining to regulate the temperature of the process.
But scientists don't stop there. Today, a lot of work is being done to study the beneficial properties of this metal with its subsequent use in mechanics and the chemical industry.
Mercury: 7 Quick Facts
- Mercury is the only metal that, under normal conditions, is in a liquid state.
- It is possible to make alloys of mercury with all metals except iron and platinum.
- Mercury is a very heavy metal, because... has enormous density. For example, 1 liter of mercury has a mass of about 14 kg.
- Metallic mercury is not as poisonous as is commonly believed. The most dangerous are mercury vapor and its soluble compounds. Metallic mercury itself is not absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract and is excreted from the body.
- Mercury cannot be transported on airplanes. But not because of its toxicity, as it might seem at first glance. The thing is that mercury, in contact with aluminum alloys, makes them brittle. Therefore, an accidental spill of mercury can damage the aircraft.
- The ability of mercury to expand evenly when heated has found wide application in various kinds of thermometers.
- Remember the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland? So before, such “hatters” actually existed. The thing is that the felt used to make hats was treated with mercury compounds. Gradually, mercury accumulated in the master’s body, and one of the symptoms of mercury poisoning is severe mental disorder; in other words, hatters often ended up going crazy.
Source: http://www.alto-lab.ru/elements/rtut/
Mercury
The tendency of mercury to change from one form to another and the ability to accumulate cumulatively is especially important in its technogenesis.
In addition, mercury is ubiquitous, sulfophilic, hydrophilic, multifaceted and present in all environments and types of environment, has many forms of occurrence, which significantly complicates its study. It is super toxic and super pathological even in very low concentrations.
Mercury is found in the lithosphere and biosphere in the form of solid compounds, various gaseous phases and in dissolved form, each of which predominates under specific physicochemical conditions, but easily transforms into each other.
During technogenesis, mercury accumulates in the waste of many industries, having high rates and destructive biological activity, and is capable of producing hidden anthropogenic accumulations, but humanity cannot exist without this amazing metal.
How mercury is monitored and controlled, what methods and instruments for its control exist - I suggest you get acquainted below the cut.
Take a look at this amazingly beautiful mineral that has interested people since ancient times.
Until now, it is popular not only for its main purpose (producing mercury), but also for jewelers.
This is cinnabar - mercury (II) sulfide. Mineral for the production of mercury. Contains about 85 percent mercury, a brittle material with a characteristic red color.
Cinnabar has been used since ancient times as a red dye, as a source for mercury, and as the only reliable (albeit unsafe) treatment for infectious diseases that existed before the invention of antibiotics.
As an indispensable bright scarlet mineral pigment, cinnabar was already used in Ancient Egypt and early Byzantium. Everywhere since then, as in our days, natural cinnabar is widely used in canonical icon painting.
But, of course, the most important use of this mineral is the industrial production of mercury.
Mercury is definitely an amazing material. It is the only metal that can exist in liquid form under normal conditions. It is metal, so it is electrically conductive.
But if mercury is cooled to minus 39 degrees C, it becomes solid and is no longer particularly different from other metals. It can even be forged and sharpened. There is an interesting video on the Internet with a story about this wonderful substance.
Mercury is used in a wide variety of technological processes, as well as in the production of gas-discharge lamps, microelectronics and instrument making. Mercury is an extremely technologically in demand substance, and if mercury were not so toxic, the scope of its use would be even wider. It must be said that mercury itself is not very dangerous - its compounds and vapors are much more dangerous. These are the sources of the main danger.
Mercury under control
Mercury can accumulate in soil, water, food, and in the body of humans and animals. Mercury in the form of vapor is always present in the surrounding air, but its “background” concentrations are not high.
By the way, which ones? Quite strict Russian standards for this case regulate the concentration of mercury in the air no more than 0.0003 mg/m3.
Of course, recording and monitoring such concentrations is not an easy task, and for this there are more than 25 registration methods. Mercury registration methods
For example, chromatography.
In this method, a separation process is carried out in which the compound of interest is distributed between a mobile phase (liquid or gas) and a stationary phase (solid or liquid).
When analyzing mercury in natural objects, it is possible to determine methyl-, ethyl-, and phenylmercury halides, as well as phenylmercury, dimethyl- and diethylmercury, as well as some other less common organic forms of mercury.
The disadvantage of this analysis method is the technically complex laboratory equipment and the method is used mainly to determine the mercury content in industrial and natural objects with a high mercury content, as well as in soil.
There are a number of methods associated with the use of radioisotopes. Despite the menacing name, such methods are quite safe, since radioisotopes are used in negligible concentrations.
To carry out the analysis, a precisely known amount of the component being determined, labeled with a radioactive isotope with known radioactivity, is added to the test sample. After homogenizing the sample and undergoing isotope exchange, mercury is isolated from the medium (usually by chemical means) and its radioactivity is determined, from which the initial amount of mercury in the test medium is then calculated.
This method has a fairly high sensitivity, does not require expensive equipment and allows you to work with low concentrations of mercury.
Radiotracer analysis methods make it possible to solve such problems as determining trace amounts of mercury in substances, monitoring environmental pollution when analyzing the composition of atmospheric aerosols, natural and wastewater fallout, and analyzing soils, as well as plant and animal objects. Radiation methods reliably guarantee the identification of mercury, have a fairly high sensitivity and make it possible to increase the accuracy and reproducibility of analysis results. In addition, such methods do not require expensive equipment and allow working with low levels of radioactivity, which makes them indispensable for use in small laboratories, on research vessels, in high-altitude stations, in expeditionary and field conditions. Detection limit of methods - up to 10-6 – 10-8%
If a good arsenal of control methods has been accumulated for determining mercury in liquid and solid media, then for analyzing the concentration of mercury vapor in the air everything is much more complicated.
Primarily due to low concentrations of vapors in the air and the lack of sufficiently simple registration methods. The most promising registration method is based on the Zeeman method.
Let's take a closer look at it.
Mercury in the air
Zeeman effect - splitting of lines of atomic spectra in a strong magnetic field. Since any substance has its own spectrum, if you use the spectrum of a special mercury lamp, but in the presence of a strong magnetic field, such a spectrum will be distorted.
Additional components will appear in the spectrum, which will be a mirror image of the main spectrum. It looks something like this: The initial spectrum (black curve) is distorted by three when the magnetic field is turned on.
A central spectrum (blue) and two symmetrical side spectra (shown in red). The magnetic field induction in this case is 1.56 Tesla. This effect fundamentally makes it possible to implement a convenient method for recording mercury.
To do this, it is necessary to analyze the change in the amplitudes of the separated and main components, while the higher the concentration of mercury in the air under study, the higher one of the components of the split spectrum will be and, at the same time, the lower the other.
The support channel either does not contain mercury at all, i.e. demercurized, or there is an exactly known value of mercury concentration in the form of a reference.
After the spectrometer, the reference and test spectra are supplied to the matrix, which is often cooled in order to increase sensitivity and for temperature stabilization. The resulting spectra are analyzed and the concentration of mercury in the air under study is finally determined.
Of course, this is the most general representation of the circuit of such a device; in fact, due to the extremely low concentration of mercury in the sample, it is necessary for the optical radiation to travel along an extended path in the measuring cell, for which various optical schemes for repeated passage of optical radiation are used. This is done in order to achieve a significant increase in sensitivity due to repeated passage of the light beam while maintaining the relatively small size of the device. This, in turn, significantly complicates and increases the cost of the design due to the need for “fine” tuning of the device. The use of multi-pass cuvettes tightens the requirements for vibration, and there are also significant influences from temperature changes. However, these disadvantages are compensated by a significant increase in sensitivity, because the beam in a multi-pass cell can “run” a considerable distance. Sometimes tens of meters. Most modern instruments use multi-pass cuvettes.
Mercury Convention
Despite the unconditional demand for mercury for modern technologies, issues of a sharp reduction in its use in the near future are being considered.
In 2013, the UN adopted the rather tough and very controversial Minamata Convention on Mercury, which was supported by many countries.
According to the convention, the use of mercury should be regulated and the production of certain mercury-containing devices (medical, fluorescent lamps) should be reduced.
A number of industrial processes and industries are also restricted, including mining (especially gold mining) and cement production.
As of 2020, the convention prohibits the production, export and import of several different types of mercury-containing products, including electric batteries, electric switches and relays, certain types of compact fluorescent lamps, cold cathode or external electrode fluorescent lamps, mercury thermometers and pressure measuring instruments. The initiators of the convention explain their intention to seriously limit the use of mercury in order to intensify the development of modern technologies in conditions when it will no longer be possible to use mercury and thereby significantly improve the environmental situation. However, some critics of the convention argue that this is just a reason to reconsider global markets for mercury producers and force many players out of this market. Indeed, when the convention comes into force in 2020, the price of this metal may unexpectedly increase significantly, because humanity cannot yet abandon the full use of mercury.
Have a nice day, everyone!
Probably in a past life I heard a story about how
At one factory, jars of mercury were buried in the ground - but everything there was much harsher than in our lives.
Sometimes you just need to somehow collect mercury... In our family we usually used a magnet for this....
We read:
Instructions for those who have broken a thermometer and do not know how to properly collect mercury balls. And most importantly - where and in what form to submit them
Why is mercury dangerous?
Toxic vapors of this metal (and they begin to evaporate at temperatures from +18 ° C) can enter the body. Moreover, some of the drops will probably “scatter” and penetrate into the cracks of the floor and baseboards, carpet pile, etc. You won’t notice them, but mercury, actively evaporating, will gradually poison the air and your body. This poison is cumulative, that is, it gradually accumulates and “settles” in the body.
What does this mean? Accumulated mercury causes chronic mercury intoxication: after some time, a metallic taste appears in the mouth, stomatitis, dermatitis and anemia, headaches, problems with stool, kidneys, tremors in the limbs.
How to remove mercury
Very carefully, but this can be done independently, as environmentalists write. First, you need to remove children and animals from the room. If it's cold outside, open the window: this will slow down evaporation. But it is important to prevent a draft, otherwise the mercury will “scatter”.
You should put shoe covers or plastic bags on your feet to avoid stepping on mercury. Put rubber gloves on your hands, and a disposable mask with gauze soaked in a soda solution inside on your face.
The next step is to prepare a glass container (you don’t mind, you’ll have to give it away later) with water or a solution of potassium permanganate. You will need to place the collected substance and fragments into it.
We take two sheets of paper and cotton wool moistened with a 0.2% solution of potassium permanganate. An alternative to cotton wool is tape, a damp paint brush, dampened paper, or a syringe. With their help, you need to roll balls of mercury onto a sheet of paper and place them in a glass container.
The container with mercury and water should be tightly covered with a lid and it is better to take it to the balcony - away from heating devices. But under no circumstances should you throw it down the garbage disposal or flush it down the toilet.
Treat the area where the mercury was with a concentrated solution of potassium permanganate or chlorine.
How not to collect mercury
Under no circumstances should you collect mercury with a broom or vacuum cleaner. Mercury, together with the air, will pass through the vacuum cleaner engine, and a mercury film - amalgam - will form on engine parts made of non-ferrous metals. And then microdroplets of mercury will disperse with the air throughout the apartment.
“One day we came to a call from a grandmother who had broken a thermometer,” says Alexander Kuksa, technical director of the Testeco laboratory. – The maximum permissible concentration of mercury is 300 nanograms. When the thermometer broke, the figure increased to 7,000. But that’s nothing. Then she wiped the mercury with a wet cloth and vacuumed the room. The concentration increased to 156,000 nanograms."
It is also not worth washing clothes in which you removed mercury. This can lead to harmful metal contamination in the washing machine. All things that came into contact with mercury will have to be thrown away.
Where to return a broken thermometer in Moscow
In theory, everything is simple. Call 112 from your mobile phone (from a landline number - 01) and say that the thermometer has broken. They will write down your address, and if the tips above did not help, they will advise you and come directly to your home. It's free.
In practice, it all depends on the workload of ministry employees and the place where you live. If for some reason the Ministry of Emergency Situations cannot help you promptly, you can call a paid mercury cleaning service. It is expensive - from 5,000 rubles and above (plus a 50% surcharge for traveling at night).
“The procedure and its price depend on the situation,” explains Alexander Kuksa. “We come, collect mercury, then use instruments to measure the concentration of mercury vapor in the air. If it is still elevated, we look for local sources - balls of mercury could have rolled into the cracks of the parquet, behind the sofa, or into the pile of the carpet.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations does not always take on minor cases with a thermometer. In our practice, there was a story about a woman who bought a new apartment in the center of Moscow and found a three-liter broken jar of mercury on the balcony. Here, of course, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations quarantined the house, carried out measurements, monitoring and processing for six months.”
The collected mercury is usually put back into production - for example, it is purchased by factories that produce measuring instruments
Mercury is a very dangerous substance with the ability to evaporate. Mercury vapor is the most harmful, so being in a room where it is present is dangerous to health. Thermometers broken due to carelessness are sources of severe contamination of residential premises. Today we will tell you what to do and how to collect mercury if the thermometer breaks.
How to collect mercury from a thermometer: algorithm of your actions
1) Remove residents from the premises, especially children, by closing the front door to prevent vapors from spreading.
2) It is necessary to reduce the temperature in the room, for example, open a window.
3) Cover the area where the mercury has spread with wet sheets of newspaper. Place things that have been in contact with mercury in plastic bags and take them out onto the balcony or outside.
What should you not do if a thermometer breaks in your room?
1) Do not create drafts when ventilating, so that the smallest particles of mercury do not scatter throughout the room.
2) You should not use a regular broom, as mercury balls may rise into the air and cannot be collected.
3) If you use a vacuum cleaner, it will spray throughout the room. In addition, the device will be infected and will have to be abandoned.
4) Clothes contaminated with mercury cannot be washed, as the substance may contaminate the washing machine and sewer system.
5) You cannot throw mercury into a garbage chute, toilet, or landfill.
How can you collect mercury from a thermometer?
Until the substance is collected, household members should not enter the room. You need to prepare a metal or glass jar with a tight lid. You will also need a scoop, a brush, a sheet of paper, and a medical bulb. Before collecting mercury from the floor, you must wear rubber gloves.
1) Carefully lift and lower large fragments from the thermometer into the jar.
2) Using a brush and scoop, collect small fragments and large drops of mercury.
3) Using a sheet of paper and a brush, sweep up small drops of mercury, carefully dropping them into the jar.
4) Check the cracks in the floor and things located near the broken thermometer. Use a medical bulb with a thin tip to remove mercury from places inaccessible to the brush. Make sure there is not a drop left.
5) Having collected the mercury, close the jar tightly and carry out wet cleaning in the room using a weak soap-soda solution or a solution of potassium permanganate.
It is much more difficult to collect mercury from a carpet that has a fleecy surface.
Is it possible to collect mercury with a magnet? It’s impossible, because nothing will come of it, since mercury is a diamagnetic material that weakly interacts with a magnetic field, capable of being repelled rather than attracted by a magnet. In addition, when trying to collect mercury using this method, the balls may roll in different directions.
After collecting large particles of mercury from the carpet, people very often use a vacuum cleaner or take the carpet outside to knock it out. This is incorrect because the person doing the cleaning inhales a significant portion of the fumes. At such moments, the best solution would be to contact specialized services.
If you manage to collect mercury yourself, you need to tightly close the jar and, under no circumstances, throw it into the garbage chute or trash can in the yard. After all, by doing this, you can not only damage the environment, but also harm people’s health. The can should be handed over to an organization that handles mercury disposal. The address of such an organization can be found by calling the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
To be sure that the room is completely cleared of particles of the substance, you can invite specialists, for example, from the sanitary and epidemiological service, to check the concentration of mercury vapor in the room.
Video on the topic
The existence of UFOs was questioned until it was understood how these extravagant “hats” or “saucers” flew. But here’s a sensation: engineer-researcher from Moscow Yuri KOYNASH revealed the principle of UFO movement, tested it experimentally on a model and proposed a real design of an unconventional aircraft (UAV). From now on, unidentified flying objects can be considered fully identified. Even if these “plates” do not exist in nature, then we, earthlings, can build them ourselves. And say: “Let's go!”
Oh, and the “brothers in mind” are cunning. For many years, venerable scientists unanimously refuted the very existence of UFOs. They say that all the witnesses are abnormal or charlatans, and the photographs are falsified. But the main trump card of the skeptics was this: it is impossible to fly on a “saucer” or in a “hat” that has neither propellers, nor a turbine, nor even a seedy jet engine. UFOs do not burn anything or throw anything out of themselves, so how do they repel from air, water or, more surprisingly, from vacuum?
The first guess came to me in February 1992, when I was watching the TV show “UFO - an unannounced visit,” says Yuri Koinash, candidate of technical sciences, employee of one of the military institutes. – The program showed a filmed saucer-shaped UFO. What interested me was that the angle at the base of the “plate” is close to 45 degrees. As is known from physics, at such an angle the forces acting on an inclined surface are most effectively decomposed. For example, the wind will do a great job of pushing a boat forward when it blows into a sail angled at 45 degrees. This angle is widely known and used in our earthly technology. Naturally, the creators of “flying saucers” should also know it.
The fact is that, thanks to the optimal angle of attack, a traction force or driving force is created inside the plate, which is many times greater than the resistance of air or water. And in a vacuum, as you know, resistance is zero.
So, the researcher began to consider “plates” as an ordinary vehicle, which consists of an energy source, an engine and a propulsion device (classic example: gasoline, motor, propeller). We, earthlings, have already created the first two components of this trinity a long time ago. What’s missing is the “little thing” – a powerful, reliable, economical, environmentally friendly propulsion device that could operate in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and, most importantly, in the vacuum of space.
According to Yuri Alekseevich, it is easy to illustrate how lift is created. You need to draw the outline of the “plate” and cover one half of it with your hand. What will we see?
You will get the wing profile of our earthly aircraft, familiar from childhood, only with an increased angle of attack. Every schoolchild knows how a wing creates lift. So, does the “plate” mean a circular wing?
Yuri Alekseevich has no doubt about this. The only difference is that the flow of particles from the external environment acts on the wing of the aircraft, while the working fluid enters the circular wing of the “plate” from the inside. Just like a rocket. Only in her case the working fluid is thrown out, while in the NLA it is located inside the body and continuously creates a lifting force.
If a liquid rotates in a cone-shaped body, then under the influence of centrifugal force it presses on its inclined wall and, as it were, tries to push it apart. The liquid moves along the wall to the base of the cone and pushes it upward. The magnitude of this lifting force depends on the density of the liquid, the angular velocity of rotation, the radius of the body and can reach enormous values with a relatively small mass of the liquid. (By the way, instead of liquid, you can use ionized air or electron gas, rotating it with an electromagnetic field at enormous speed.)
The lifting force pushes the propulsion body, and with it the entire apparatus. But unlike a yacht, the “plate” is acted not by an external, but by an internal force created by the rotating fluid. Particularly high draft occurs when using mercury, which is more than 13 times heavier than water. It is probably no coincidence that modern researchers find mercury in places where UAVs were forced to land. And it seems that it was this that was called “silver liquid” in the ancient Indian epic, describing “vimanas”.
But mercury is very heavy. It turns out that your “plate” will have a huge weight?
Not at all. The liquid layer can be centimeters long, and the diameter of the apparatus can be tens of meters. Therefore, NLAs have an insignificant specific gravity. Their crazy speeds, instant stops and turns are similar to the maneuvers of a balloon: if you hit it with your hand, it will instantly fly off and then stop. So the “plate” is thrown to the side when a powerful force impulse is created in it from the mover.
Yuri Alekseevich derived formulas for determining the lifting force of propulsion bodies of different shapes (cone, paraboloid and hemisphere) and made calculations on a computer to determine how effective such propulsors can be. It turned out that a paraboloid is capable of imparting the greatest acceleration to a unit of mass. Moreover, the optimal ratio of its height to radius is 1:1.15...
Here some readers may accuse me of disclosing know-how, which will allow its owners to make a breakthrough in scientific and technological progress. But the fact is that this breakthrough was made long ago by UFO builders. Having measured the parameters of the “plates” in famous photographs, the inventor was convinced with great amazement that they were the same ones that his calculations showed. For example, if you spin a paraboloid with mercury 1 meter high, 2 meters in diameter, and a working fluid mass of about 60 kilograms (with a layer thickness of 1 centimeter) up to 10 revolutions per second, then a thrust of up to 4 tons will occur. This will allow you to fly at an acceleration of more than 600 meters per second - 60 times the acceleration of free fall. And our modern rockets develop tens of times less thrust. Therefore, if we want to catch up with our “brothers in mind,” we must, as they say, sit down at our ease.
Astronauts fly at a maximum of six times acceleration - more dangerous to life. How can the “greens” rush with the furious accelerations that eyewitnesses talk about?
Really, I don't know. But there is information that the “aliens” have small, light bodies, no internal organs, and virtually no blood circulation. They exist like plants. With such a constitution, they are not afraid of huge accelerations. It is known that cockroaches in a centrifuge can easily withstand 300-fold overloads.
“Plates” can move away from the planet at any (even minimal) speeds and accelerations. But in the air or under water, they sometimes have to maneuver very quickly, avoiding “gifts” in the form of missiles or torpedoes that inquisitive earthlings can send them. That’s when the “saucers” develop enormous speeds: in the air - more than 70 kilometers per second, under water - up to 300 kilometers per hour, this is tens of times more than our aircraft, and almost 3 times more than ships and submarines . The fact is that, flying or floating sideways, the “plate”, like a cutter, cuts the air or water environment. Due to the rotation of its layers above and below the “plate”, particles of air or water are thrown to the sides and the apparatus moves as if in a “vacuum capsule”. But in space there is no environmental resistance at all - so they fly there at a speed of more than 200 kilometers per second.
Flying… drill
Having figured out this “alien trick,” Yuri Koinash tested it experimentally. He made a cone-shaped impeller of a centrifugal pump, closed at the top and bottom with casings that smoothly expand at the base. At the top of the upper casing there was a hole for water supply. The inventor began to rotate this “plate” using a drill he held in his hand.
When water was supplied through the hole, the impeller began to pull the drill and the experimenter's hand along with it. In this way, two important results were obtained: the liquid was ejected from the expanded part of the housing in a horizontal direction, and not downward, and a driving force appeared in the device. There was no reverse force impulse in the impeller housing that could prevent the device from moving upward. In fact, the result was an open-type centrifugal jet propulsion unit with a constant supply of liquid into the body and ejection of it out.
In the following experiment, a closed propulsion model was tested: a cylindrical container with water was placed inside a conical impeller, connected to an electric motor and mounted on a scale. The impeller spun up to 1400 rpm. At the same time, water from the container flowed onto its blades and, rotating, created a lifting force. Then it flowed into the “brim of the hat” and remained there.
The liquid in this closed system also did not create a reverse impulse. The scales on which this device stood showed short-term “weight loss.” And then the scale arrow returned to its original position.
This experiment was carried out in the laboratory several times and showed that in this case the fundamental law of physics about the conservation of momentum in a closed system does not work. They used to think: no matter how much you fuss around inside a closed building, no matter how much you hit the walls, you won’t move it, you won’t go anywhere, and you won’t fly away. But it turned out that this law is not a decree for centrifugal forces of inertia. Therefore, Koinash's experiments paved the way for the creation of supportless propulsors with continuous traction.
This is how the principle of movement of “unidentified” objects, which from now on become identified, was theoretically explained and experimentally proven.
According to Yuri Alekseevich, “plates” fly under water, in whose bodies an electrically conductive liquid circulates. It is spun up by rotating electromagnetic fields of greater power, which electrify the surface of the device and it begins to glow, especially strongly along liquid flows. These flows seem to be visible through the body, revealing to observers the internal structure of the flying (floating) saucer.
When braking a rotating fluid, enormous mechanical energy is released, which can easily be converted into electrical energy by generators known to us and supplied to batteries or directly to the drive engine. Powerful braking of the fluid allows you to return back the lion's share of the energy that is spent on rotating the propulsion.
A similar effect is well known on Earth. When an electric train goes up a hill, the energy of the electric motor is spent on movement, and when rolling down a hill, mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy and returned back to the network. This process is called energy recovery and is widely used in railway transport. And “plates” due to recovery have a huge efficiency: about 95-98 percent.
These calculations and experiments made it possible to draw a clear conclusion, says Yuri Koinash, that the “hat” or “plate” is nothing more than the propulsion device of the UAV, similar to a hydrodynamic coupling. By slightly changing it and increasing its size, we will get the source of that same internal force that allows the “saucer” to develop enormous speeds and accelerations, make fantastic maneuvers and fly gigantic distances.
Universal transport
But this is only one of many areas where the Koinash propulsion system can be used. If you equip a car with such a “plate”, placing it instead of a flywheel in the engine, then there will be no need for drive wheels, a gearbox, a clutch, a driveshaft, and so on. The “plate” needs to be directed with the top forward, and it will drag the car along with it. In this case, all wheels will become only support and steering wheels. A car with such a propulsion will easily drive on any off-road and even on ice.
A similar “plate”, installed with the top facing backwards, will serve as a reliable brake, the effectiveness of which will not depend on the condition of the road (ice, falling leaves, mud).
The possibility of recovering the electric power of the propulsion opens a direct path to the creation of an efficient electric vehicle - the long-standing dream of our ecologists and “green” people.
To reduce friction between the mover and the body, you can use magnetic cushions or suspensions, well known to earthlings. In this case, friction will decrease to almost zero, further increasing the efficiency of the installation. By the way, in many countries, after a UAV flight, thin jelly-like threads were found on the ground. The inventor believes that these are particles of lubricant that serve to seal the joint and are squeezed out of it by centrifugal force.
You can reduce energy costs in another way: make the “hat” motionless, and rotate an electrically conductive liquid (the same mercury) under it with a magnetic field. In such a device there will be no rubbing parts at all.
In any case, energy costs will become so insignificant that it will be possible to fly into deep space even on kerosene, not to mention nuclear fuel (1 gram of nuclear fuel is equivalent to 1.5 tons of oil).
In general, why drive or swim? Let's better fly! It’s nicer, more convenient, and faster. Let's not spend money on roads, bridges, rails, sleepers, ships, ports, airfields and other attributes of our earthly transport. After all, we will finally create a classic universal type of transport - a UAV, which is capable of moving in all near-Earth environments: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the vacuum of space.
But unconventional aircraft will open up the greatest prospects for astronautics.
As you know, 95 percent of a rocket’s mass is fuel, which is stupidly thrown onto our heads, polluting an already poisoned habitat. This design is absolutely unpromising for long-distance space flights: there is only enough fuel to launch the device into Earth orbit in 10-15 minutes or throw it in the direction of another planet. Remember how quickly the “lunar” programs collapsed? But they are simply unprofitable with such engines. After all, a kilogram of lunar rock turned out to be more expensive than gold.
As far as I understand, your propulsion system creates such powerful thrust and requires so little energy that it becomes possible to deliver earthlings to the distant planets of the solar system and even to nearby stars?
Yes, “plates” can penetrate into deep space, inaccessible to rockets. To do this, there is no need to invent new engines or energy sources - it is enough to increase the efficiency of the old ones that work with my propulsion system. After all, “brothers in mind,” according to my calculations, can fly to us from distant galaxies at the same gas station. But on Earth they behave like true freeloaders, feeding off our energy for free.
It is a well-known fact that “flying saucers” like to hover over power plants or fly slowly along power lines.
Are they taking energy from them?
Of course, it's elementary. You yourself can become the same freeloader: make a frame out of wire and insert a light bulb into it. Approach a high-voltage transmission line, the powerful electromagnetic field around the wires will begin to generate current in the frame (like in a transformer), and the light bulb will light up. With the help of such a frame, or rather, the rotor windings of the NLA electric motor, the so-called “little green men” constantly steal electricity from us. When an electrically conductive liquid rotates in a free electromagnetic field, a current arises in the mover itself. In this case, we obtain the well-known circuit of a magnetohydrodynamic generator.
Freeloaders of the Galaxy?
Areas of seismic activity have also become favorite places for “plates” to hang. Here, during rock movements, powerful streams of infrasound are released. And its energy can be converted into electrical energy and charged batteries with it.
There is also a lot of sound energy in places of battle. In addition, there you can recharge with the energy of thermal radiation. Therefore, “plates” were often seen during the first and second world wars, in Vietnam, Korea and other warring countries.
UAVs are charged with the energy of infrared and sound radiation in areas of fires, volcanic eruptions, and so on. It’s not for nothing that hovering “plates” are often observed there. They, like spiders, suck the energy of geological disasters and social upheavals, the inventor believes.
But why do they need such a variety of types of energy?
So that you can receive it in any environment. For example, electromagnetic waves do not propagate in water. But infrasound is practically not attenuated in it. The green energy is converted into electricity, stored in batteries, or used immediately.
It turns out that aliens benefit from any catastrophe - technical, geological, climatic, military, social, etc.?
Energetically this is exactly the case. And in quiet times, they shamelessly steal energy from our technical systems. So don’t be surprised when the lights suddenly go out in your house or neighborhood, as happened on 1965 in America. Then the entire northeastern United States, with a population of 36 million people, was plunged into darkness. Businesses stopped working, commuter trains stopped, airport landing lights went out, telephones, radios, and television stopped working. Life in 8 states was paralyzed for 10 hours. The cause of this “accident of the century” has not yet been established, although, in my opinion, a large “plate”* was at work there.
Scientists are scratching their heads as to why dozens of crews abandoned their ships “for no reason” in the Bermuda area. And our inventor explains this by the tricks of the “greens”. When a UFO turns on a powerful infrasound emitter for communication or location of the surrounding space and a ship enters its field, its hull begins to vibrate from resonance. At the same time, a terrible panic begins: something similar happened in the theater, when the famous inventor John Wood turned on his infrasound generator in front of the public, the audience jumped out of their seats and rushed to the doors, breaking chairs and losing their minds with fear.
A classic case occurred in 1974 in the Atlantic. A German trawler had a net wrapped around its propeller, and one sailor in scuba gear went into the water to free the propeller. But, grabbing onto it, he suddenly felt that the entire ship began to vibrate violently. In great fear, he waited out the shaking, but when he got out on deck, he saw that there were no 40 crew members on the ship, and a huge silver disk was hanging in the sky.
But, Yuri Alekseevich, there are no power plants or power lines in the oceans. What do the “greens” need in peacetime?
They chose the oceans and seas to hide from very unfriendly, warlike bipedal creatures. After all, it is very likely that it was aliens who created people on Earth. From time to time they check their “garden” or “zoo”. And we strive to catch and destroy our creators...
Strange reasoning. Yuri Alekseevich just told me what accidents happen to people during contacts with representatives of a “higher civilization.” “Plates” drove people crazy, made them disabled and even killed many people. It seems that the “greens” are not behaving like the creators of a “vegetable garden” or a “zoo,” but like malicious pests who, without a twinge of conscience, “pull out” or shoot whoever they want...
“I categorically disagree with your reasoning,” Yuri Koinash told me after reading these lines. – Yes, if they were our enemies and wanted to destroy humanity, they would have done it hundreds or thousands of years ago, killing then practically unarmed earthlings with the help of powerful infrasound and electromagnetic waves. They do not want and will not harm us. After all, all earthly biological objects are their creations.
And the fact that some people are affected by this or that radiation, received burns, blindness, paralysis, leukemia, according to the inventor, is simply the result of accidents. People fall within the range of powerful electromagnetic or infrasonic waves used in UFO locating systems to monitor the surrounding space. Innocent “aliens” are just inspecting earthly objects for research and orientation in flight, observing animals and people along the way. Studying what their “garden” that they planted thousands of years ago will turn into.
Not long ago, unknown persons killed dozens of cows, from which some internal organs were removed through smooth cuts made while still alive. Researchers are scratching their heads... trying to understand how these bloodless and unburned cuts were made. And, according to the inventor, they can be performed with a thin, focused ultrasonic “beam” that shakes tissue cells at high frequency, causing them to rupture.
In the bag"
However, Yuri Koinash himself wants to solve quite earthly problems with the help of his “plate” or “hat”. For example, the planet is polluted with a huge amount of harmful debris - you can take it into space and throw it on the Sun. We are tormented by forest fires - they will be extinguished by the NLA. You can disperse thunderclouds or, conversely, cause rain, extract minerals at the bottom of the sea or... asteroids. It is known that more than 50 thousand small planets are meaninglessly “hanging out” between Mars and Jupiter. By dragging a rare-earth asteroid to Earth or extracting a concentrate from it, it would be possible to provide for all of humanity for many years.
By launching huge elliptical mirrors into geostationary orbit and directing the flow of light energy from the Sun to Earth, it would be possible to regulate the climate in the regions, melt metal with these rays, and grow agricultural products in the Arctic. These and many other jobs are entirely within the capabilities of powerful, economical, heavy-duty flying saucers.
Finally, how do we know if there is life in the Universe? - Yuri Alekseevich dreams. – The first way is to catch the “plate” and have a heart-to-heart talk with the aliens. But it is hardly feasible. It’s much easier to make a “plate” yourself and fly around the Universe to calmly figure everything out.
Yuri Alekseevich explains many mysteries of “unidentified objects” (and there are about 40 of them) from the point of view of physics, chemistry, mechanics, mathematics, and psychology. For example, when photographing “plates” in flight, the film is often exposed to light: this occurs under the influence of electromagnetic waves from UAV radars. The same effect is obtained when passing through special doors at the airport with a metal detector, while carrying photographic film. Conversely, the image of a ULA is often not captured in photographs. This happens in cases where aliens use infrared locators: after all, their rays do not affect the film.
In many countries, crop circles with yellowed grass, crushed clockwise or counterclockwise, appear in crop fields, causing great confusion among farmers and tourists.
But the fact is, the inventor believes, that “flying saucers” have been there. Grass crushing occurred when the rotating body of the UAV landed on the field. And the yellowing of grass, tree branches and bushes occurred as a result of exposure to high-frequency electromagnetic waves from radars, as in well-known microwave ovens. For the same reason, sometimes the soil dries out, the water temperature rises, and the bodies of cars and airplanes heat up.
From monastery reports it is known that in 1663, on Robozero, two fishermen suddenly felt intense heat. The water in the lake became very hot, and its bottom was visible to a depth of 8 meters. This lasted approximately 1.5 hours. A typical case of exposure to high-frequency electromagnetic waves, concludes Yuri Koinash.
By the way, American tracking stations recorded the radiation parameters of electromagnetic waves from a flying saucer: 3 gigahertz and 600 pulses per second. Our radar systems operate in approximately the same mode. And a wavelength of about 10 centimeters is optimal for transmitting a television signal in the polluted earth’s atmosphere. It is known that at shorter or longer wavelengths the signal level drops sharply. This once again emphasizes the man-made nature of flying saucers.
Recently, the whole world went around a sensational documentary about how several versions of flying saucers were developed in Nazi Germany. Defeat in the war prevented the completion of these studies. But the scientists managed to load their equipment onto a ship and send it to the Southern Hemisphere, where they could safely continue their work somewhere in remote Africa or America. According to some reports, 80 percent of modern UFOs are German devices created by “true Aryans” in colonies isolated from the outside world.
“I saw this film,” comments engineer Koinash. - In it, in particular. A sloppy sketch of the design of a supportless propulsion device made by Professor Charlesburger** is presented. After painstakingly deciphering this diagram, it was possible to understand the principle underlying this design. It completely coincides with what we discussed with you.
According to the inventor, the state that is the first to create such devices will be far ahead of other countries economically, environmentally, geographically, ideologically... True, the introduction of “plates” will be desperately resisted by the aerospace lobby, which has built its prosperity on traditional aircraft. But here we have to choose what is more valuable to us: resting on the laurels of outdated inventions or going through a painful restructuring in order to become a leader in scientific and technological progress.
