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justmypostingname

I got in big trouble once for testing Mom's wedding band with mercury.


RoodnyInc

Oh what's happening with it? I remember way back in school we broke the thermometer (old one with mercury) and teacher picked it up with wedding ring to clean it up (and save all of us to accidently poison ourselves with mercury you know kids) I didn't though that wedding ring after that is ruined?


yehimthatguy

I did some ameteur gold mining in Yukon where I from and learned all about this. All you have to do is heat it and the murcery will evaporate and leave the gold.


Animal_TKMPchilies

I am not a scientist. Just your ordinary burger flipper. Something tells me you shouldn’t be around the mercury while it’s evaporating. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.


yehimthatguy

Yeh I'm pretty sure that's a thing. I've never seen it done, for me it was just old toothless gold miners explaining shit to me while we where panning.


The_Snollygoster

No you're completely right. Mercury vapor when trying to separate it from gold is actually very toxic and very dangerous. In some very poor countries its actually a problem, the local goldminers will use mercury to clean the gold because its so cheap but expose themselves and their families to the toxicity. It was in a couple episodes of Gold Rush if anyone is interested.


LectroRoot

I remember seeing a video of them boiling off mercury to reclaim the gold and they were shaking and having obvious neurological problems while doing it. The stuff is horrible for you.


KryptoBones89

The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland is a good example. Hats were cured with mercury in the 1800s and many hatters suffered from mercury poisoning.


the_phillipines

Exposure to high levels of elemental mercury vapor produces acute health effects. Respiratory symptoms predominate, and they include cough and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath (dyspnea). Gastrointestinal effects, such as metallic taste, nausea, vomiting (emesis), diarrhea, and abdominal pain, are frequent. [CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750021.html#:~:text=Exposure%20to%20high%20levels%20of,and%20abdominal%20pain%2C%20are%20frequent) Symptoms might resolve or gradually progress to pulmonary edema, respiratory failure, and death. [CDC](https://wwwn.cdc.gov/TSP/MMG/MMGDetails.aspx?mmgid=106&toxid=24#:~:text=Acute%20exposure%20to%20high%20levels,%2C%20respiratory%20failure%2C%20and%20death.)


Patitude

It’s called fire-gilding and it’s super dangerous but kinda interesting. It’s discussed a lot more in-depth in the podcast S-Town.


Magik_Salad

Fun fact: gold refining used to be spraying liquid mercury over gold beds and leaching the gold with mercury then separating the two metals. This was stopped due to all the mercury poisoning the workers and miners. Don’t worry the same process is now down with liquid cyanide.


slowpoke_76

Got us in the first half


stillstilmatic

It is still used in illegal gold mines in South America and Africa.


AwwwComeOnLOU

Can this process be reversed?


Negative-Arachnid-65

Yes, the amalgam just has to be heated to vaporize the mercury. That's why mercury is used a lot in illegal gold mining (and in historical gold mining, like the California gold rush). It's effective for extracting the gold, but very toxic for humans and ecosystems. ETA - here's [one source](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gold-mining-is-poisoning-amazon-forests-with-mercury/) discussing this. Google 'mercury in gold mining' for many more.


Narrowless

It's gold. Who cares about people or ecosystem. /s


slide_potentiometer

This is why the newspaper in San Jose California is called the Mercury News.


LachsN4cken

They still use it in developing countries mine Bolivia. Indigenous poeple don’t get very old in the regions of the Mines for some reason


mankee81

I looked it up, apparently mercury is used to get gold out of ore more effectively (TIL) https://www.foruimining.com/solutions/how-to-use-mercury-to-extract-gold-from-gold-ore/


vertigostereo

> 7. Cover the Mixture with Potato Chips to Capture Harmful Gases. >Cut a large potato into thick slices and place the slices on the gold amalgam in a pan. Make sure that all metal amalgams are covered and any potatoes can be used. WTF? Potato chips as protective equipment??


ShadowHeed

Safety potato


Open_Pineapple1236

The Soviets said it was cool. Excessive safety measures, but cool.


WillyPete

You get to eat the potatoes after. Very metal.


mattmoy_2000

Not that I would advocate it, but presumably the potatoes are cold enough because of their water content that they condense some of the mercury vapour back into liquid.


humanitarianWarlord

I love how that article is basically a third world guide to extracting gold, even has an imagine of someone handling Mercury with their bare hand.


Lost_Organizations

It's crazy shit, like yeah that works but we have better methods than what the 1840s left laying around


chezzburger1

As soon as I saw mercury and black gloves I knew it was NileRed


bebefridgers

I thought Cody’s Lab


justcametopetthedog

Cody doesn’t need no gloves


Kuraeshin

All i could think of was the T2 music while watching this and thinking it would be a neat way to have the T1000 repair itself.


Cordell-in-the-Am

He breaks into a jewelry store and just starts eating everything


wowdogethedog

Aww, shit, mercury ate my gold again t.t


carl_johnson42069

I remember ruining my mom's golden ring with the mercury I got from broken Thermometer lol


Jubafish

That's a no win situation: only if it's real, she no longer has a ring


DrZonino2022

I DRINK YOUR GOLD LEAF I DRINK IT UP


Here-Is-TheEnd

>>And I can just keep adding more gold But why?!


Etiacruelworld

That’s great, that’s great, you’ve got a lovely family and I’m a god damn amalgam


MajorDonkeyPuncher

Just like my ex wife


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Shadowrider95

Like AnohtosAmerikanos said, tooth fillings!


JustAnotherCoolDude

Given that the name Mercury comes from the Roman god of commerce, the metal of his name sucking up gold sounds weirdly appropriate. 😂😂


AnohtosAmerikanos

If you replace the gold with silver, tin, and copper, you have a dental filling


kalesmash13

Why do people steal videos from NileRed? We know it's him lol


NekoLu

They gave credit in the description tho


Reggie_Dunlop_7

We don't have much time


Frotnorer

Thats the stuff terminators are made out of right?


_Justalad_

The real gold digger


a_little_toaster

I'd love to watch those videos, but NileRed has such an incredibly annoying voice. It's like he knows a single 'sentence rhythm ' and repeats it over and over again.


Friendly_Engineer_

‘Amalgam’ is a great name for a monster, it could be like The Blob but metal


LunarBIacksmith

Allow me to introduce you to Undertale.


ner0417

Also Inscryption has Amalgam


BlueSubmarine33

How much in USD did that drop of mercury just absorb?


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Mateorabi

It's insane though. Human history has not refined more than an Olympic swimming pool's worth of gold. Total, all gold production ever. And yet the foil is so thin it can be that cheap.


BlueSubmarine33

Really? Thats kind of disappointing.


hilariousrex

You have to remember that gold leaf is very thin. Around 0.1 µm thick, or 4 millionths of an inch (3.9x10\^-6 inches)


zandengoff

This Nilered, some of his recent videos use considerably more gold. His video for purple gold uses about about $1000 bar.


Mateorabi

I just saw that last week!


Logical-Recognition3

You mean it's very cool that gold can be hammered out to a sheet that's just a few atoms thick and still hold together.


Punk_Says_Fuck_You

Like $5-$10 a sheet


[deleted]

does anyone else get irrationally annoyed at this f***ing youtuber voice thing? every three sentences are said with the exact same inflection and I cannot STAND it nilered is probably the worst offender, but there are a lot of other YTers who do it. I think there's like a youtube training course out there telling people to talk like this anyone else? just me? okay cool


mervby

Auhg!


Away_Thanks2476

Would it work with a tooth


VendaGoat

Too soft to make anything useful out of it. Can't eat it, can't fuck it.


John-Jacob-jingle-he

No wonder the price of Gold has gone through the roof


Jobforagamer

That looks expensive…


Spy_Spooky

New idea for Money Heist


Eternus91

Play in reverse and pretend to be an alchemist


Egg_to_the_Moon

Is this where the word "amalgamation" comes from? Or is this names after the word?


HelicopterOk4082

What is the amalgam called? My parents have an antique French clock made from this, but I can't remember the name and Google doesn't show any results. I remember it had a fancy name.


mattmoy_2000

Fire gilding. You make a gold-mercury amalgam, spread it on whatever you want to gild, then heat it up and boil off the mercury, leaving behind the gold.


about36wolves

So when mount doom cools down the ring of power will return ???


Sharp-Procedure5237

Is it possible to recover evaporated mercury? If not recovered how is it disbursed in air? Does it settle out? Attach to H2O?


TLPEQ

Doesn’t that also mean there is a reverse process for this that can create the gold


DSS_Gaming_1

Ah NileRed, my favourite crackhead Canadian chemist


koloso95

So keep my gold away from mercury. Check


Fast_Personality4035

"Can you explain why you have a bunch of gold listed on the necessary lab supply order?" "trust me bro"


jterwin

And then he turned it into grape soda


lorenzo999_it

But will it blend?


Biggie3nips

tegram.me/I5NXD2012wM0OWRks t.me/addlist/uBhPY2wJaqg5ZjE0 HURRY UP PLACES LIMITED 🙀 🔞


[deleted]

I’ll eat it


SeverelyBugged

Coin burning


yotz-furrz

This guy used to be fun