Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] max-min thermometer: offtopic mercury

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] max-min thermometer: offtopic mercury
  • Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 13:43:50 -0500


On Mar 7, 2010, at 1:19 PM, Shawnee Flowerfarmer wrote:


  "a couple of old mercury ones that still, basically, work fine; but over the years a bit of the mercury has gotten out of place and won't go back where it belongs (yes, I've tried shaking them down) so the sides no longer read quite the same and I'm not sure which is correct."

OOO a antique mercury thermometer!  I had a curmudgeonly chemistry professor who said that HE'D been working with mercury for 40 years but now it was too dangerous for STUDENTS, so we'd have to measure temperature with our thumbs. (!)  "I've worked with so much mercury," he growled, "that when it's cold outside I get shorter and when it's hot, I'm 6 and half feet tall."  I was scared to death of this fellow and nearly fell out of my desk laughing.
Shawnee, zone 5


When I was in grade school (which puts it in the late 1950's or early 60's), I remember blobs of mercury being passed around the class for us to observe the odd way they behaved.

No, this was not mercury sealed in closed containers. Loose mercury. Little kids. 

Humans behave in odd ways, also. The stuff has been known to be hazardous for I think the last couple of centuries; I think what has changed is ideas as to what the hazardous dose is. -- I will say that I, like huge numbers of other people, survived all sorts of things now considered to be deadly; but that cumulative doses and combinations with other chemicals are definitely factors worth considering (I wish they were considered more thoroughly with new chemicals before release).

The thermometers I have I bought in the 1970's and 80's, if I remember correctly; I don't think they came off the market till sometime in the 1990's.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page