why – it was used in large current switches – in early 70s my university group was given an old computer that had a large bowl of mercury used in the power switch – probably about a kg maybe more – just make sure the container, preferably glass, in the mythical cellar has a good tight stopper – just in case might be worth ventilating the cellar prior to entry – if any was spilt then you may be in for an expensive clean up.

I have a small earthenware bottle of the stuff, too. There must be something I can use it for. Unless there are specialist metals dealers who will pay more for it than the cost of my taking it to them.

Friend of mine had a job to replace some mercury arc rectifiers with more modern kit. He thought he'd make a bob or two selling the mercury, quite a lot of it. Far fro it he had to pay to get rid of it. However for small quantities you could try finding someone who repairs barometers, or even some clocks had mercury n their pendulums (penduli?)

To answer the original question.

Yes Bob would be liable to prosecution under the explosives precursors and poisons (EPP) regulations. Max penalty is 2 years in prison.
You now need a licence to possess many previously common chemicals. If the Hg was sealed in a valve, lamp or instrument it is exempt, but a bottle of it needs a licence. Also applies to battery acid, many plating chemicals etc. Note that it does not apply to professionals or businesses.

See:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/licensing-for-home-users-of-explosives-precursors/licensing-for-home-users-of-poisons-and-explosive-precursors

Robert G8RPI.

I'm not a lawyer but this one is pretty straightforward. Get professional legal advice if you need it , but I doubt there is much case law on this one yet, don't be the first.

Robert.

Edited By Robert Atkinson 2 on 04/06/2019 07:19:44

As an aprentice one of my jobs was to scrape the 'silvering' off the backs of old mirrors and save the scrapings in a bottle.
The mercury gradually fell to the bottom and was decanted off to be sold to 'the mercury man' who attended annually.

Alas, no more.

Still got a couple of mercury arc rectifiers in use at the Kempton Steam Museum:

Well worth a visit, but make sure they are open before travelling.

John

Edited By Journeyman on 04/06/2019 09:13:36

Kiwi Bloke has forgotten Brenton Trent…

Mercury is pretty aggressive when in the company of aluminium, back in the 60’s when I was carrying out major servicing of Brittania aircraft in the Air Force we received an aircraft in for a major service and when we were working on it we noticed that the lower pressure skin of the fuselage was dotted with numerous small holes, it was in effect porous. It transpired that the aircraft had recently been used to carry the tools and equipment of a squadron on detachment to Canada. Packed in amongst the test equipment that they carried was a stone jar full of mercury, due to rough handling this had been smashed liberating a large amount of mercury, this being a fairly heavy element worked is way downwards through the aircraft and ended up on the outer pressure skin. It promptly eat its way through the skin, this incident went unreported until we discovered the damage on the major service, it required a large repair to re skin the underside of the fuselage in the affected area, good job we found it when we did, an explosive decompression could have resulted if the damaged area had grown in size. As an aside I remember in my teens I used to buy mercury at the local chemist and we used it for experiments, we did dabble in making and detonating explosive mixtures perhaps that enough said on that.

Dave W

SOD; no I haven't forgotten. We are straying off the topic, however, the deranged individual you mention is best forgotten, I think. He was, to the best of my knowledge, not a bureaucrat, and it was about them that I being rude. Since you apparently take an interest in the goings-on in NZ, you probably know that a major re-write of the Arms Act was passed within a week of the atrocity. Further legislation is promised. There was no reasonable time allowed for public submissions, nor sensible parliamentry debate. The revised legislation contains a number of 'Henry VIII' clauses. These are dangerous and I would have thought incompetent in law.

74A Order in Council relating to definitions of prohibited firearm, prohibited magazine, and prohibited ammunition

The Governor-General may, by Order in Council made on the recommendation of the Minister,—

(a) amend or replace the description in section 2A of a semi-automatic firearm (except a pistol) or pump action shotgun that is a prohibited firearm:

(b) amend or replace the description in section 2B of a magazine that is a prohibited magazine:

(c) declare any semi-automatic firearm (except a pistol) or pump-action shotgun of a stated name or description to be a prohibited firearm for the purposes of this Act:

(d) declare any magazine of a stated name or description to be a prohibited magazine for the purposes of this Act:

(e) declare any ammunition to be prohibited ammunition for the purposes of this Act.

In other words, the government can re-define various terms as it thinks fit, when it thinks fit. These 'catch-all' clauses allow for any, or all firearms or ammunition to be declared illegal, on a whim. This is not a reasonable way to write legislation. The bureaucrats responsible are dangerous: a danger to reason and democracy and are no longer acting as servants of the public.

In the 50's our science master often poured some out on a surface so we could roll it around with our fingers and get a "feel" for it. It does not seem to have affected my health.

On the other hand, this was the same master who blew up the science lab with me and other boys in situ. Now that DID hurt. Lots of ambulances, smoke, blood, burns, and a stay in hospital.

Still, I expect that the school thought that this sort of thing along with bloody boxing bouts on a wednesday and British Bulldog in the playground hardened us up ready for WW3.

Just in case there was any doubt, being involved in one of the regular bleeding nosed punch ups in the "play" ground would result in both combatants being "slippered" . That meant two hefty and painful thwacks on ones rear end administered by a particularly sadistic gym master wielding an old PE plimsoll.

Here, years on, it occurs to me that I witnessed far more danger and violence at that school than in in my entire service in the army.

Rik

In terms of huge volumes of Hg, the Castner-Kelner process for producing chlorine and caustic soda by the electrolysis of brine is worth a mention. The old ICI "cell rooms" in Cheshire were incredible; in each, the amount of Hg could be around 100 tons, the current required upto 200,000 amps at 200V. The gap between the electrodes and the Hg surface was very critical for efficiency – too close and imagine the result !
Hazards of Hg were well known in the 60s and workers were routinely monitored. Mercury vapour was released along with the hydrogen from electrolysis and traps were needed to recover the liquid Hg. When the diaphragm process began to replace the mercury process from the mid 70s those huge volumes of Hg would have had to have been disposed of – maybe sold?

But back to reminiscences of school days in the chemistry lab., as others have mentioned the inevitable little globules of Hg would collect in the benchtop grooves. At my school we were required to use only fountain pens for note taking. The rotten trick was to take someone's pen, with its gold nib when they were not looking and press the nib in to the Hg. The resulting amalgam would to cause the nib to disintegrate and the pen's owner distress.

At school in physics class we were allowed to stick our fingers in the mercury and do various other experiments with it. In chemistry class we created small quantities as a product of a reaction and the teacher would be jumping around to make sure we flushed it down the sink pdq. (where it settled nicely in the trap) Silly thing was that the salt we started with would be poisonous and the liquid safer until reacted into a salt again. The panic was about the potential of the liquid turning to fumes which are extremely hazardous but which wouldn't really happen until a fire. I assume nowadays schools just do computer simulations of all science experiments to be on the safe side.

So the real worry for the op's friend is having it in the house during a fire as the firemen will be really puzzled that the corpses were found in a room that was hardly affected by smoke.