[Jewelry making - Article 00652] - Re: [Orchid] Funky Fossil

[Bruce Holmgrain]

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>         Back in the old days - the 50's - we chewed on the lead foil
>     "icicles" decorating our Christmas trees. And if we were bored, we
>     played with those marvelous blobs of mercury and gilded a quarter
>     or penny. But Dad made us come inside when the mosquito foggers
>     drove through the neighborhood spewing DDT. 

    Someone dropped a thermometer in the local college here and caused a
    shutdown. Two local high schools have been closed for for a few days
    for similar spills. They have done everything short of calling these
    places "Super Fund" sites. 

    A few years ago, I moved back in with my dad. I set up shop in his
    basement. There was some kind of gas leak that was addressed by the
    gas company. Sometime later, I found mercury on the floor of the
    utility room. I swept it up and put it into an old carafe that was
    sitting there. Without thinking, I used the carafe to fill my steam
    machine. Imagine my surprise when I was steaming an 18K piece and it
    was turning bright silvery. Seems that the gas company uses some
    kind of mercury valves and some kind of surge on pressure. Perhaps
    that has become a super fund site. 

    BTW I think that the icicles were in fact tin. Hence the name
    "tinsel". 

Bruce D. Holmgrain
http://www.goldwerx.com
guy AT goldwerx.com
JA Certified Master Bench Jeweler / CAD/CAM Solutions

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