Mercury or quicksilver

Unfortunately, Florentine thermometers, or any thermometers of the time, were not very accurate no two thermometers gave the same temperature, since there was no universal acceptance of liquid type or agreement on what to use for a scale. Makers of Florentine thermometers marked the lowest scale as the coldest day in Florence that year and the highest scale for the hottest day. Since temperature fluctuations naturally occur over the years, no two thermometers gave the same temperature. For several years Fahrenheit experimented with this problem, finally devising an accurate alcohol thermometer in 1709 and the first mercury or quicksilver thermometer in 1714. 

A long account is given of mercury or quicksilver (vif-argent) and its compounds. Lemery claims that he was the first to give in his lectures a correct explanation of its medicinal effects, although others had published it later. In the earlier editions he referred to the work on the venereal disease by Nicolas de Blegny (1653-1722), the royal surgeon (1687), but omitted this mention in later editions. Corrosive sublimate (mercuric chloride), un mercure penetre... 

To use a mobile liquid like mercury or quicksilver only for the actual head of a hammer and to drive in big nails by means of it, is another of the little wondera that carbon dioxide snow can easily accomplish. All that is necessary is to run mercury into a suitable mould, in which is held upri t the wooden handle and freeze the mercury as before. 

Several nineteenth century authors refer to whites of antimony (as well as of various other elements such as zinc, bismuth, mercury or quicksilver and tin in the same context, usually when discussing alternatives to lead white (q.v.)). For example Osborn (1845) writes that From antimony and from zinc, whites have been made which have been said to possess, with sufficient body, and great beauty, assured permanence. Heaton (1928) also lists antimony white, giving the composition as antimony oxide . The British firm Cookson Lead and Antimony Co. developed and introduced an antimony oxide-based white pigment around 1920 under the trade name Timonox. 

Horn quicksilver—subchloride of mercury, or native ealome]—is found associutsd with the other ores of quicksilver at Idria, at Deux-Ponts, in Spain, and elsewhere. It is a yellowish or ash-grey mineral, sectile, and suhtranslucent. Sometimes it occurs as a crust, or forms granular concretions,. At other times it crystallizes in four-sided prisms. Its specific gravity is 6-4S2, whilst that of the powdered calomel of the shops is 7T4, and that of the crystallized factitious subchloride is 7-2. 

As regards the First Preparation, with which you have nothing to do, if you are fastidious, and wise enough to surprise Diana at her bath, you have simply to consider this for your guidance at this point The philosophers Mercury, or Mary, before she is espoused to Joseph (SULPHER, "the multiplier") and before whe is touched by the Holy Spirit (the FIRE, that is ShlN=300=RVCH ALHIM), is not Argent Vive (quicksilver) in its proper nature, nor in its whole substance, but only the middle and pure substance thereof. 

Mercury is a metallic chemical element identified by the symbol Hg on the periodic table. It is silver in color and, unlike other metals, is liquid at room temperature. The ancient name for mercury was quicksilver, meaning living silver. This name reflected mercury s lustrous silver color and its unusually lively behavior when it is poured onto a smooth surface, it forms beads that roll rapidly around. The element s modem name comes from Mercury (or Mercurius), the fleet-footed messenger of the gods in Roman mythology. 

The Muslim alchemists adhered essentially to the Aristotelian philosophy, although they modified it in certain ways. In particular, the sulphur-mercury theory appears basically as a derivative of the theory of the Four Elements. The apposition of the two opposed, or contrary, elements, fire and w ater, now assumed a new guise. Fire became Sulphur, and Water became Mercury, These names must not be identified with the material substances, sulphur (brimstone) and mercury (quicksilver). They denoted abstract principles, composed of hot and dry (sulphur) and cold and moist (mercury) natures. In alchemical writings they were often called sophic (or philosopher s) sulphur and sophic mercury, or our ... 

One of the most tantalizing chemical transformations known to ancient practitioners of inorganic chemistry involved roasting of mercuric sulfide ores such as cinnabar to form hydrargyrum or quicksilver (60). As the toxic properties of mercury became more widely appreciated in the middle ages, formulations of the metal and its salts were used in medical applications. 

Mercury (Quicksilver, Hydrargyrum), Hg, at wt 200.61, silvery liq, mp —38.87°, bp 356.9°, d 13.546g/cc at 20°. Insol in w, HC1, ale and eth sol In nitric acid. Sometimes found native poisonous. Can be prepd by heating the ore cinnabar (HgS) either in air or with lime. Forms numerous salts, some of which are very expl, eg, Hg fulminate, Hg azide, etc. The presence of Hg in expls, even in minute quants, is unde-sireable because it affects the result of thermal stability tests. Marshall (Ref 1) describes various tests used in Engl and Ger for its detection in different expls and propints Refs 1) Marshall 2, 708-12(1917) 2) Mellor... 

In his Natural and Moral History of the Indies, Father Jose de Acosta said that the Incas labored long in the Peruvian mercury mines without knowing what quicksilver was, seeking only cinnabar, or vermilion, to use as war paint (59). The Spaniards discovered the mercury mines of Huancavelica in 1566-67. 

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