I don't know if it the proper way but I used a very nice fume hood. Measured the metals (high purity), melted them in a quartz crucible, stirred with a quartz rod, and cast it in a ceramic block with a spiral pattern machined into it with a ball mill. You don't want to contaminate the mixture with other metals, etc. That "Things I Won't Work With" article was about dimethyl cadmium, not metallic cadmium. Reall Nasty Stuff. Metallic cadmium and cadmium plating has been used for ages without killing too many people. It's not something to take lightly, but I've had the pleasure of working around far worse things. For even more extreme nastiness check out dimethyl mercury... one drop, goes through rubber gloves like they aren't there, sure-fire rather horrible death. Derek Lowe's "Things I Won't Work With" series is some of the best reading out there... Unfortunately, I don't think that he is still doing them. His old web site has disappeared.

Ah, you might not have meant that for this list. You are a man of many talents. Dimethyl mercury has given elemental mercury a bad name it doesn't deserve. As a youth, I used it to turn pennies into silvery dimes. Father said he'd ingested a teaspoon to see how fast it would go through him. In his day, beryllium pliers were used around explosives because they were non-sparking. We both lived many years afterwards. People who don't understand the difference between elements and compounds insist that cleaning up after a broken mercury thermometer be done wearing moon suits. So it goes - as time goes by. Bill Hawkins -----Original Message----- From: time-nuts [mailto:time-nuts-bounces@febo.com] On Behalf Of Mark Sims Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 10:26 PM To: time-nuts@febo.com Subject: [time-nuts] What would be the proper equipment and procedure? I don't know if it the proper way but I used a very nice fume hood. Measured the metals (high purity), melted them in a quartz crucible, stirred with a quartz rod, and cast it in a ceramic block with a spiral pattern machined into it with a ball mill. You don't want to contaminate the mixture with other metals, etc. That "Things I Won't Work With" article was about dimethyl cadmium, not metallic cadmium. Reall Nasty Stuff. Metallic cadmium and cadmium plating has been used for ages without killing too many people. It's not something to take lightly, but I've had the pleasure of working around far worse things. For even more extreme nastiness check out dimethyl mercury... one drop, goes through rubber gloves like they aren't there, sure-fire rather horrible death. Derek Lowe's "Things I Won't Work With" series is some of the best reading out there... Unfortunately, I don't think that he is still doing them. His old web site has disappeared. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.

Bill, it isn't quite so simple as that. While handling and ingestion of metallic mercury is ordinarily benign, inhalation of mercury vapor is not. The vapor pressure of metallic mercury is quite low but even very modest concentrations, which can readily occur at room temperature, can exhibit significant toxicity when inhaled. As odd as it sounds, metallic mercury is slightly soluble in water and aqueous solutions. Mercury in solution is readily absorbed and quite toxic. Organic mercury compounds (dimethylmercury, monomethylmercury, others) are profoundly and generally irreversibly neurotoxic. Cf. Karen Wetterhahn, Dartmouth College, 1997; Minamata Disease, Japan, 1956. Inorganic mercury compounds exhibit a broad range of toxicities and some are corrosive. I'm like you and your dad in that I played with mercury as a child. Mother once gave me a pound of it for my birthday (yes, weird family). I, too, have lived for many years since then. However, the fact that exposure to even very small amounts of mercury vapor can result in subclinical neuronal loss may explain why neither you nor I have ever been handed a medal by the King of Sweden.... You're correct that people often overreact to the risk of mercury toxicity. Many years ago, when I was the director of a large trauma center, a woman came tearing in at midnight, accompanied by her husband and eight year old son. Between hysterical sobs, she explained that she had found the boy playing with a tiny blob of mercury. "Do something!", she screeched. "He's going to die of Manny Mota disease." A resident helpfully remarked, "So long as he sticks to the minor leagues, he should be fine." This caused her husband to laugh aloud and doubtless provoked a domestic discussion later. Moon suits are not necessary for the cleanup of modest amounts of mercury but the suggestion that mercury in metallic form is a benign substance is not correct. It should be handled with reasonable laboratory precautions and kept out of the hands of children and mindless dolts. Unwise to use it to determine gastrointestinal transit time, too, though that is a novel idea. Other Bill On Saturday, October 29, 2016, Bill Hawkins <bill.iaxs@pobox.com> wrote: > Ah, you might not have meant that for this list. You are a man of many > talents. > > Dimethyl mercury has given elemental mercury a bad name it doesn't > deserve. As a youth, I used it to turn pennies into silvery dimes. > Father said he'd ingested a teaspoon to see how fast it would go through > him. In his day, beryllium pliers were used around explosives because > they were non-sparking. We both lived many years afterwards. People who > don't understand the difference between elements and compounds insist > that cleaning up after a broken mercury thermometer be done wearing moon > suits. So it goes - as time goes by. > > Bill Hawkins > > > -----Original Message----- > From: time-nuts [mailto:time-nuts-bounces@febo.com] On Behalf Of Mark > Sims > Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 10:26 PM > To: time-nuts@febo.com > Subject: [time-nuts] What would be the proper equipment and procedure? > > I don't know if it the proper way but I used a very nice fume hood. > Measured the metals (high purity), melted them in a quartz crucible, > stirred with a quartz rod, and cast it in a ceramic block with a spiral > pattern machined into it with a ball mill. You don't want to contaminate > the mixture with other metals, etc. > > That "Things I Won't Work With" article was about dimethyl cadmium, not > metallic cadmium. Reall Nasty Stuff. Metallic cadmium and cadmium > plating has been used for ages without killing too many people. It's > not something to take lightly, but I've had the pleasure of working > around far worse things. > > For even more extreme nastiness check out dimethyl mercury... one drop, > goes through rubber gloves like they aren't there, sure-fire rather > horrible death. Derek Lowe's "Things I Won't Work With" series is some > of the best reading out there... Unfortunately, I don't think that he > is still doing them. His old web site has disappeared. > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/m > ailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > -- If you gaze long into an abyss, your coffee will get cold.

Derek moved to Science: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/ His last Things I Won't Work With was September 2016: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-wi th Dave > -----Original Message----- > From: time-nuts [mailto:time-nuts-bounces@febo.com] On Behalf > Of Mark Sims > Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 20:26 > To: time-nuts@febo.com > Subject: [time-nuts] What would be the proper equipment and procedure? > > I don't know if it the proper way but I used a very nice fume > hood. Measured the metals (high purity), melted them in a > quartz crucible, stirred with a quartz rod, and cast it in > a ceramic block with a spiral pattern machined into it with a > ball mill. You don't want to contaminate the mixture with > other metals, etc. > > That "Things I Won't Work With" article was about dimethyl > cadmium, not metallic cadmium. Reall Nasty Stuff. Metallic > cadmium and cadmium plating has been used for ages without > killing too many people. It's not something to take lightly, > but I've had the pleasure of working around far worse things. > > For even more extreme nastiness check out dimethyl mercury... > one drop, goes through rubber gloves like they aren't there, > sure-fire rather horrible death. Derek Lowe's "Things I > Won't Work With" series is some of the best reading out > there... Unfortunately, I don't think that he is still > doing them. His old web site has disappeared. > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there.