From: Gary Tefft / locustent@aol.com
Location: Menomonee Falls, WI
Date: 13 Sep 1998
Time: 01:39:39
Red Wing and lots of other stoneware companies made Mercury jugs. Mercury is a metal which has a melting temperature well below room temperature. You are probably aware that most metals are not used in their pure state, but are alloyed or combined with other metals or nonmetalic elements to enhance properties such as strength, hardenability or corrosion resistance. One of the physical phenomena that occur when you create solutions of materials disolved in each other is that the melting point of the solution is different from that of either of the pure materials. The usual way you would think of making a solution of two metals disolved in each other would be to heat them until they were molten and stir them them togeather. In the case of mercury it is already molten. If you mix in some finely divided metal that is soluble in mercury, specifically silver, the silver disolves in the mercury at room temperature and, if you have the proportions of ingredients right, the melting temperature of this amalgam is higher than room temperature, so it quickly solidifies as the silver is disolved. This is what dentists use to fill cavities in teeth. Fortunately, unless you believe the health scare du jour, mercury has such a strong affinity for silver that it remains locked within the filling and poses no risk of poisoning.
Mercury was also used to extract gold from ore. The ore was pulvarived and mixed with mercury. The mercury disolved the gold out from the rock which had held it. The mercury was then boiled off (are you surprised that a metal with a melting point way below zero degrees would boil at a managably low temperature. Unfortunately for the prospector, mercury fumes cause severe nervous system and brain damage. Even mild exposure causes erratic behavior. That's why mercury thermometers are banned from Navy submarines. The mercury fumes from a broken thermometer would cause a problem in the confined space. It was the Mercury compounds used to remove hair from rabbit pelts for making felt hats that resulted in the reputation for havng a bizzare personalitybbv that was examplified by the Mad Hatter in Through the Looking Glass / Alice's Adventure in Wonderland.
I'm told that the Red Wing jugs can be identified by the rectangle around the word "Mercury". It's worth putting on E-Bay if it emmits mercury fumes. On second thought, E-Bay is erratic enough.
The meaning of life? I can sum it up in one word; "Plastics"!
-Gary-