Magnesium Powder Flash

[Drew Bedo]

I apologize for any condescension on my part.

I once thought I would like to get involved with Daguerreotypes. In the 1990s, I worked in diagnostic imaging at a major VA hospital as they transitioned from a facility built during WW-II to a, then shiny and new modern facility of 1000 beds. Part of that transition involved all-new equipment of every sort in every department.. In the middle of all that I managed to salvage two Mercury Sphygmomanometers'; blood pressure equipment. My thought was to salvage the mercury for use in the traditional Dag process.

My professional experience has involved the use of ventilated glove boxes to work with radioactive materials and laminar flow hoods for working with blood products. I felt that I could safely work with boiling Mercury fumes. Never have done that and the blood pressure gear remains safely packed away. Some day I will either salvage the Mercury and sell it (any one here interested?) , or perhaps more responsibly, take it in to a Haz-Mat recycling site.

Re: Fireworks. I grew up in Michigan and most fireworks were banned. While in grade school, I had a friend who had relatives in Kansas where they could then buy about anything short of dynamite. He would come back from visiting them with copious q2uantities of dangerous stuff. It is a wonder any of us managed to make it to our 50th High School reunion last July! Your concerns in that regard are well founded.

[Tin Can]

My lb of mercury 10X10" rectangular glass tube survived bad packing and USPS shipping

and I was really worried about breaking it open in my almost sealed living space

Clean up would have been a nightmare and hazardous

as kid in the 50's everybody played with broken thermometer Mercury with some collecting all they could...like my brother...

At my material test lab inside the factory we had powerful exhaust hoods every 10 ft, and negative pressure rooms where the door was very hard to open

2 coworkers died of Trichloroethylene poisoning as they would not observe safety measures I constantly hounded them about

The factory sold spray cans of 'Clean Off'. A miracle later banned.

Rest in Peace