The AM Forum

Cleaning up in an SK estate, I found a 1 Lb bottle of Mercury back behind some boxes of parts on one of many, many shelves. The seal is still in place though it's obviously been sitting there for decades, and it's high quality "triple distilled". See label.

The family wanted it out of there (along with every 866, radium dial, etc..)

I hope to get a fair price for the family on this but am not sure where to go. A local neon shop perhaps?

A good find though, and the old label is interesting. It has astrological looking symbols on the logo too.
(the unrelated one drop in the plastic vial is going to the recycler - it's dirty, and probably from a thermostat.)

What would a ham radio guy have used this for? I can't think of anything offhand.

label details

Opcom said:The only thing I can think of is he was making his own Mercoid switches.

Many years ago I had an almost identical experience, though the quantities were greater. - even the military radium dials and pointers. My Elmer, W2MJD, collected about 5 baby food jars of mercury and about 100 mercury switches used in the trunk of autos to activate the trunk light.

Twice yearly our county, Bergen County, has a hazardous waste collection day - no questions asked. I pulled up and told them I had mercury, and radium coated material. He looked at the quantity and called someone on the radio. Within a minute two guys showed up in hazmat suits. The mercury was placed in multiple containers, and was eventually taken away in a 55 gallon drum. The radium coated items were examined and placed in black bags, similar to anti static bags. I got a smile and a thank you - no questions asked.

Maybe this???

https://hackaday.com/2017/04/15/high-vacuum-with-mercury-and-glassware/

klc

That's interesting! At least it's real experiments and otherwise things that can work. Just don't want it going to an irresponsible party.

   Brought home an old BTI LK-2000 from Nearfest. The RF deck has some usable parts but the lower, power supply portion is badly rusted and mostly junk. The transformers are rusty and the insulation probably degraded by water saturation, but maybe I'll try to refurbish them.
   Parting out the power supply section the other day - not being particularly gentle - I came very close to smashing a good sized mercury filled relay - obscured by rust and debris - onto the concrete floor of my workshop. There's quite a bit of it in there, and all those shiny little globules would have scooted off into every dark corner of my shop. Not a terribly hazardous scenario, but I'd rather not have it there. Lesson learned about hacking and blasting old gear without knowing what's in there.