> They may also not have had that much on hand, HCl and nitric acid are way easier to find.
At the same time, Mercury use was way more widespread than now in laboratories, so it may have been readily available as well. A number of things were banned or heavily restricted for laboratory use in relatively recent history (80s~90s).
> Gold and mercury form an amalgam
Sure, but if you have a sufficient amount of mercury, that amalgam will remain invisible to the eye as Mercury is not translucent - and you can just write "mercury" on the flash and you can be sure no-one will dare to touch it.
WWII-era soldiers may not have been as fearful of the fun that is mercury as we are today.
> you can just write "mercury" on the flash and you can be sure no-one will dare to touch it.
Remember we're talking about 1940. Whoever discovered it might very well take it off the shelf to play with it. ;)
Oh, Mercury poisoning has been known for a very, very long time, and certainly well documented since the late 1800s.
And yet my parents (both born in the 1960's) both played with beads of mercury on their desks in school on numerous occasions... It was pretty common
When I was at school (1980s) the teacher had us line up and put our fingers in a flask of mercury. It was a very peculiar sensation. I probably wouldn't want to repeat that "experiment" today.
Sure, I'm not saying the general knowledge of mercury poisoning was commonplace back then, but in the scientific community it was, I believe, well known already.
Re:Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)
by pilsetnieks on Thursday May 07, 2015 @04:14AM
(#9503825)
It was the Nazi soldier community they were worried about.
Edit: Looking at some videos, it appears you could get something that looks like regular mercury. I'm wondering how much mercury you would have needed to solubilize a medal. They may also not have had that much on hand, HCl and nitric acid are way easier to find.