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From: peg@psuecl.bitnet (PAUL E. GANTER)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Mercury and (real) dimes
Message-ID: <89936@psuecl.bitnet>
Date: 26 Feb 90 23:27:16 GMT
References: <25E934B0.37FC@deimos.cis.ksu.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Engineering Computer Lab, Pennsylvania State University
Lines: 25

In article <25E934B0.37FC@deimos.cis.ksu.edu>, mac@harris.cis.ksu.edu (Myron A. Calhoun) writes:
> Well, on a "real" (i.e., silver) dime mercury makes an amalgam with
> the silver and discolors the dime.  For more information on amalgams,
> ask your dentist the next time you see him/her.
>
> I don't know anything mercury would do anything to the current no-silver
> dimes, but if I had some mercury, I'd sure try it (after I got tired
> of pushing the little puddle around in my hand.  Would I wear a rubber
> glove?  Maybe.  But we didn't use to.  As someone once said, "Fools rush
> in where angels fear to tread".)
> --Myron.

Not sure about the new dimes, but GOLD reacts pretty much the same way,
apparently.  At a previous job, we used mercury probes to examine raw
semiconductor wafers.  A spot of liquid mercury makes contact with one
side of the wafer (the bare one), and a metal contact touches the gold-
coated side of the wafer.  (The gold is deposited in a vacuum chamber--
forget how thick it is...).  Anyway, if you get the mercury on the gold,
it very quickly removes it!

We tried this with various other materials in preparation to build our
own probe.  We went with aluminum as it appeared unaffected by mercury.

Just thought I'd throw that in....

Paul