How On Earth Did Ancient Civilisations Get MERCURY?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ย. 2024
- Mercury, or “quicksilver,” fascinated ancient civilisations. Discover how they were able to get hold of this mysterious liquid metal, and how it became an obsession of the first Chinese emperor.
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I'm getting a LOT of comments saying that other metals (e.g. caesium and gallium) are also liquids at room temperature. Apologies if this was unclear or misleading in the video, but in the scientific world, room temperature is commonly standardised at a temperature of 25°C. At this temperature, mercury is the only metallic element that's a liquid.
Chemistorian - Please see this and be ultra careful with that stuff. This is one terrifying story.
th-cam.com/video/NJ7M01jV058/w-d-xo.html - A Scientist Spilled 2 Drops Organic Mercury On Her Hand. This Is What Happened To Her Brain.
Your wording is fine.
Who considers 30 C to be room temperature? You guys need to chill, literally.
@@KriegZombie notwithstanding the fact temps have hovered around 30 C in my home this week, with high humidity (gotta love aussie summer), I wholeheartedly agree.
That extra 5 degrees C, while not a big scalar increase (298 to 303K) feels huge to us.
*meaningless rant mode disengaged*
Cheers
Unfortunately, Gallium isn't a lot of fun to play with. I had to warm my small bottle of gallium under a running hot tap to get it to liquefy. My hands weren't warm enough to do it, even after half an hour of hold the bottle tightly in my fist. Also, once you've got it liquefied, when you finally pour it back into the bottle, you are left with a grey dust in your hand (an oxide ?) so you are losing a fraction of your stock of Gallium each time you do this.
We really want to enter this tomb, but there might be arrow traps, and we have no defenses against that kind of technology.
😂
The arrow trap thing made me laugh. I dunno I don't think anything is holding tension from thousands of years ago to still fire an arrow lol
I assume it's been looted many centuries ago.
They don’t want to damage the tomb, and they also want to preserve their heritage. When the terracotta warriors were found being exposed to the air removed the paint from them.
your not wrong but whos willing to risk their lives over an uncertainty? even if there is a small chance things can go wrong most people wont volunteer for it, unless theres a big paycheck which there arent any in this instance.
One of most used substances in ancient China was cinnabar. the Taoists were always heating and refining substances that they used. So it isn't a leap that they knew about liquid mercury. What is astonishing is, if that description of the tomb is correct, the amount of liquid mercury they had to produce to make that tomb. ,
Yeah the frosting was originally mercury@@Joe-sg9ll
The fresnel lens lighthouse glass was floated on a pool of mercury, very large amount of mercury, a liquid roller bearing.
It isn't a leap because we know they have it and were using it. Do people not listen to the facts offered in the program? Go look them up if you don't believe the program
What? I knew all this before this program@@nickinurse6433
Also as far as I know the emperor didn't drink mercury, he ate pills for longevity containing mercury.
Maybe in the form of cinnabar.
I picture the discovery of Mercury going something like this...
Cinnibar looks awfully close to Iron Ore, so it was likely mistaken for it by ancient Iron producers.
They burned the ore like they would to make Bog Iron... but instead of getting metal they found shiny droplets of mercury dripping from the walls and roof. They probably FTFO and came back later to collect the odd metal. They likely also died early from vapors refining the production... so The Leaders were like cool, and filled a tomb with it to kill robbers.
Qin Shi Huang used mercury as a kind of medicine and elixir of life.
Even if the ancient leaders knowed, that mercury is poisonous, they would have known, that it doesn't kill immediately, so it doesn't make really sense to use it as a form of protection against grave robbers. But it doesn't evaporate as quickly as water and it doesn't drain easily into the ground. It's shiny, so it makes a perfect liquid in a model to represent rivers.
That makes sense to me, possibly could have happened
We have lots of evidence that ancient metal workers and their families suffered acute, chronic, and congenital illness from heavy metal exposure. Especially from lead, tin, mercury, and arsenic. There is a reason that Hephaestus is typically depicted and described as short, ugly, and limping.
Ancient ppl used mercury for women make up.
Because it makes women face look brigth but didn't know the dangerous effect.
That is an interesting theory.
I can see why ancient people thought this miraculous metallic liquid was some sort of magical substance...but man was it a mistake in hindsight to drink it!
Actually drinking mercury metal is not as bad as you may think. Inhaling mercury vapor is what is dangerous. If you drink the metal you just pass it back out again after a few hours, as the metal is unaffected by stomach acid. This was confirmed by a German chemist, he drank 200 grams of mercury metal on one occasion in a self-experiment without harm. In the case of the emperor who was obsessed with mercury, it is likely through repeat exposure he inhaled the toxic levels of mercury, as again, the metal does not react with dilute hydrochloric acid (aka stomach acid).
Mercury was a treatment for STDs, it was squirted up the urethra and often did kill the bugs. It did not do the patient much good but given the views on STDs, perhaps that was not accidental.
A lot of ancient medicine turned out to be poisonous so it's really not surprising.
Honestly I can’t blame them too much for drinking it. If I didn’t know it was poisonous and believed in magic I’d probably drink it too.
Repeat after me.
" Do not drink Mercury. It is Bad for your Health. "
If you want mercury from mercury sulfide, just heat it, literally:
At 300 up to 400 °C: 2HgS + 3O2 -> 2HgO + 2SO2
At 400 °C or above: 2HgO -> 2Hg + O2
But the extraction by reduction with copper is really cool too.
Not really any different than how you extract any other metal.
To be honest, any civilization that can make bronze or iron tools can get mercury.
@@Joe-sg9ll fire
@@Joe-sg9ll Bruh.
what a dumb thing to tell people to do, as young people do not understand the danger in this
@@donnavaughn9409 Bruh, the whole video is about how to extract mercury.💀
Mercury was used in the past to make felt hats. Where the term "mad hatter" comes from.
Mercuric nitrate was used for that, which is soluble in water, and this solution was used to treat skins.
Mercury is also used in some areas to refine gold, because the gold dissolves in it and then the mercury is boiled off, with predictable results for the slave laborers who do this.
@@sarah2.017"slave" they do it willingly
@@sarah2.017 Sadly that is a technique still used in some unfortunate parts of the world...
Everyone knows that. 🙄
I appreciate not just the level of technical research being done for this video, but the proper citing and sourcing of information, too. Such a rare thing for video content in this age of TH-cam, so it's a nice trend to see in your content!
they got it from the real ali baba
A little older, here. I remember manipulating Mercury with our hands in Science class in junior high. I also remember when the story about the first Emperor of China being buried in a huge magnificent chamber, with mercury rivers...THEN a farmer in China found some interesting artifacts in his field and he contacted some Chinese Archeologists. Then they found the buried army, which electrified world attention. It was 1974. His name was Zhao Kangmin. He died in 2018.
Inhalation of the fumes, is what I'd worry about. Unless you have a open cut it shouldn't be TOO dangerous. But, I still wouldn't handle it bare handled lol
This is the worst idea I've ever heard. Just.. don't play with mercury
Inhaling mercury fumes is what drove hatters mad as they dipped beaver skins in vats of mercury🎩🎩🎩
It explains a lot. I also played with it in school. Now I've got a great excuse for forgetting things. 🇦🇺 😊
The emperor or the farmer died in 2018? :)
In Spain if you drop one of that old thermometers made by mercury, you must call the firefighters to come to clean it, just 25 years ago we children were just playing with it XDD
just put it in a jar of water
@@naukowywariat7123 its the law, you cant touch It but you know... Each one can do whatever
Por eso los españoles son como son, que estupidez hahaha
@@shuyin69 every day you learn something new
@@shuyin69that’s a stupid law if u own something you should be able to do what you want with it so long as nobody else is affected
I have heard that one reason for not digging into the tomb is that researchers are worried that some of the mercury may have formed Mercury Fulminate, which used to be used in primers, is very explosive and only takes friction or impact to set it off. They worry about losing all the artifacts and the mound itself if it were to detonate, which is a valid concern.
That's not a thing. I work extensively with Mercury on my channel. That is not how the chemistry of Mercury works. It takes a very strong oxidizer to form mercury(II) cations. I doubt there is concentrated nitric acid dowm there.
I don't know about all that but I know Ensign Pulver loved the stuff. 😂
@@PoorMansChemistyou made 20 comments All The same. It's easy to delete them you know
We don't give our ancient ancestors enough credit, after reading your comment makes me think that they knew about it's potential for exploding and poisoning thru inhalation that this is the only "Bobby traps" that the Emperor needed?
@@PoorMansChemist What things according to you are "Very strong oxidizers" I'm no Chemist but a quick search showed that Sulphur is an oxidizer and it was a known element by alchemist in antiquity? Nitric acid was also known in ancient times. Combining Saltpetre and vitriol or alum as they were called way back in history can make nitric acid. A quick google search showed me this.
The teachers in the 60s would let us kids play with mercury in class so we could see it merge together. The good old days. Some cars had mercury switches to make a contact to cut fuel flow in a crash.
I play with, and next was afraid by learning about toxicity 😩
Thankfully Mercury doesn't absorb through the skin particularly well. Cuts would be bad, of course, as would the cumulative effects of environmental exposure, but your science class was probably the least of your exposure.
Mercury switches were mostly abandoned because modern micro switches are both cheaper and better.
Mercury is in light switches in homes.
The change was made to eliminate that "annoying" click sound the older ones made.
Nobody foresaw the toxic waste these would create down the road with remodeling or razing buildings.
@@Dewkeeper
Mecurochrome was a popular antiseptic for cuts when I was a kid. It contained mercury and would stain skin red.
It was banned in the US in 1997 due to its mercury.
Good video.
Natron usually meant salt, natural salt found in deposits. The "oil" of something in older alchemical tongue means the essence and for minerals it is the dried distilled/sublimated components.
So the oil of natron is hydrochloric acid.
Oh, you might be right! This is an insightful comment.
Centuries ago all kinds of unknown strange magical liquids (moisture dripping from a sacred catholic saint statue or whatever) were simply named "oils".
Natron oil refers to natron soap with a 99% chance.
Bolus of Mendes is widely consider main source for most of the anonymous writings referred to as Pseudo-Democritus. Mendes is about 30km from the Egyptian source of Natron (now called Wadi El Natrun). Egyptians at the time literally made soap from this Natron, it's also rather interesting soap because it has a rather high pH.
The fact that these chemists ignored this is kinda weird. They could have easily acquired natron soap that's made the same way - it's also been used in lots of other experiment archaeology research.
@@AerialTheShamen it's specified in alchemy
I was thinking it might be some sort of acid as well since sulfuric acid was once known as "oil of vitriol"
See if this Emperor had the metallurgical knowledge and capabilities to produce such a massive amount of mercury, there's no way i could ever be convinced that they didn't know how deadly it was.
If this guy is in a quest for immortality, i think his reasoning would have been that he had Mithradites syndrome and believed he could gain an immunity to mercury by eating small amounts of it.
easy for us to think this is way, but take toxic materials as beneficial happened more often than that, you remember people once put radioactive stuffs in food and think it would be good for health?
The deadly part probably wasn't the mercury, but the powdered jade he took it with. That much force with an abrasive would cause a hemorrhage. Even if not for the jade, that mercury probably only did him in due to its sheer weight straining his intestines to the point of hemorrhage. Metallic mercury is not toxic, it cannot be absorbed by the human body. Mercury compounds, on the other hand, are extremely toxic. The most dangerous thing about metallic mercury is its vapors, and when sealed within the human body, the only amount of vapor that would be inhaled would be a few whiffs if he were to breathe in immediately after burping.
He died by eating 7 mercury pellets in order to become immortal.
I bring your attention to the mad hatter. All hatters around 16th-19th century were poisoned by mercury. So ignorance is bliss for humans until it's proven it isn't.
T filled with; just a river. Its not the first time this has been used in a Chinese tomb...
What a ridiculous thing to say. He was drinking it. We know he was ingesting it. Would he be ingesting it if he knew it was poisonous?
I'd heard of the terracotta warriors, but I never knew anything more about the tomb -let alone that such an incredible tomb had never been opened. I'm super surprised about that, actually. The tomb must be legendary.
it is! main reason Chinese have not excavated it is that they are incredibly superstitious particularly concerning the First Emperor!
That is interesting, but what could they possibly be afraid of?. Do they think it would be bad luck?.
Worse luck then being slaves to a dictatorship ?, one of only two of the major Nations that are still enslaved by dictators?.@@hpinchen9451
@@hpinchen9451 The main reason is practical concerns about an excavation possibly damaging the tomb.
@@hpinchen9451 that's completely ridiculous. The reason is because when they initially excavated the tomb, the exposure to air caused pigments on the terracotta warriors to degrade almost immediately, which is why they look the way they do now. They're intentionally not excavating the rest until the technology exists to excavate them without causing immediate and irreversible damage to the contents of the tomb like what happened with the already excavated sections, especially since the untouched sections contain the most important parts of the tomb. Attributing it to "superstitions" is just playing up fanciful and negative stereotypes.
@kendrick6740
Are you saying that they could not erect a clean room on top of the tomb, drill a small hole in it, and let down a small camera or remote device of some kind? Of course they could. The govt. of China just does not want it explored for some reason.
Rivers of flowing mercury? Yeah nah, some poetic exaggeration there, I suspect. A pool of mercury now...that sounds a lot more doable, and still bloody impressive.
A channel of mercury would also probably be enough and then the light reflecting off of it would give the impression that it was moving like a river.
A little older here. I clearly remember reading about the tomb of the First Emperor of China's tomb, well before the site was discovered in 1974, by Zhao Kangmin. The story was a very popular folk tale in China. The Emperors' grave "hall" or "dome was constructed to be a mirror of China it's self. The rivers were of mercury the stars were precious Stones
What you "suspect" is utterly irrelevant. Leave that to the people doing the actual work, keyboard warrior.
The word "flowing" may have simply meant liquid, as opposed to actually moving. A small moat, if not very deep, may have been achievable.
@@brandyballoon Or they simply used a sheet of copper, and amalgamated the mercury to it, to keep it both as a flat sheet, as it would otherwise in thin films blob up from surface tension. Uses a lot less mercury, and also is a lot lighter to support, plus can actually be vertical.
Cinnabar naturally exudes mercury. Simply heating it speeds up the process (industrially, roasting at 144ºC for 8 hours is sufficient). I have been in a mercury mine in Spain and throughout the galleries there were little puddles of mercury.
I sure hope you wore a respirator
@@therocinante3443Well, the truth is that no, it was a time in which the risks of mercury had not yet been taken seriously enough. We were Geology students and that was one more of the excursions we took to the countryside. I'm talking about the end of the 70s and the Almadén mine was still being exploited; Today it is closed and is only used as a nuclear waste cemetery. That day our teacher was very embarrassed with us. After visiting the mines they showed us the laboratories and the refining process. There was a small mercury pool in which a large steel ball floated as if it were made of cork, and there we were encouraged to put our entire arm in mercury to test the enormous hydrostatic thrust (it was difficult to put our arm up to elbow level). And why was our teacher embarrassed? Well, because each of us had secretly taken some mercury from that pool, and unlike me (who carried a small jar with an airtight seal for that matter) my companions used the cellophane wrapping from their tobacco packages... As a result we were leaving a trail of mercury droplets where we walked... When they told the teacher, he was very embarrassed and ordered us all to return the mercury that we brought to the pool. I have never known of any cases of poisoning among us students, and as far as I know those who have had children do not seem to have had any problems. I suppose a longer exposure time is necessary to experience the effects. I still have that little bottle of mercury.
@@therocinante3443Well, the truth is that no, it was a time in which the risks of mercury had not yet been taken seriously enough. We were Geology students and that was one more of the excursions we took to the countryside. I'm talking about the end of the 70s and the Almadén mine was still being exploited; Today it is closed and is only used as a nuclear waste cemetery. That day our teacher was very embarrassed with us. After visiting the mines they showed us the laboratories and the refining process. There was a small mercury pool in which a large steel ball floated as if it were made of cork, and there we were encouraged to put our entire arm in mercury to test the enormous hydrostatic thrust (it was difficult to put our arm up to elbow level). And why was our teacher embarrassed? Well, because each of us had secretly taken some mercury from that pool, and unlike me (who carried a small jar with an airtight seal for that matter) my companions used the cellophane wrapping from their tobacco packages... As a result we were leaving a trail of mercury droplets where we walked... When they told the teacher, he was very embarrassed and ordered us all to return the mercury that we brought to the pool. I have never known of any cases of poisoning among us students, and as far as I know those who have had children do not seem to have had any problems. I suppose a longer exposure time is necessary to experience the effects. I still have that little bottle of mercury.
@@therocinante3443Well, the truth is that no, it was a time in which the risks of mercury had not yet been taken seriously enough. We were Geology students and that was one more of the excursions we took to the countryside. I'm talking about the end of the 70s and the Almadén mine was still being exploited; Today it is closed and is only used as a nuclear waste cemetery.
@@therocinante3443By the way, the galleries were quite a spectacle. In addition to the small puddles on the floor, millions of mercury droplets on the walls and ceiling reflected the light from our helmets. It seemed like another planet.
I watched a video recently about an Indian guru who has the same beliefs as this Chinese emperpr, he describes coming from ancient Hindu texts. He also handles & injests mercury & proscribes mercury in different traditional medicine he advocates. He didn't die yet but his wife did in mysterious circumstances. He says his belief system in relation to mercury comes from Shiva & sounds similar to the ancient Chinese emperor's beliefs.
I'm wondering if the dementia caused by mercury poisoning leads to the belief in being immortal, it certainly seems like it was glamourised as a substance in ancient history.
Religious nutters (of ALL breeds) will believe all sorts of ridiculous ideas. 😱🙄👿
The idea that mercury can make you immortal probably just came from it being a noble metal that doesn't rust and is very shiny. Combined with the seeming contradiction of it being a metal that was liquid at room temperature, making it seem magical. However there is a compelling theory that mercury vapors did drive a lot of alchemists mad and killed them.
No it's actually described why. Drinking it in small doses makes your cheeks redden and could make you look youthful, similar to the rouge or blush in modern makeup. What is acutally happening is that your capillary vessels burst from mercury posioning, similar to how your blush when drunk on alcohol.
@@lolasdm6959 that's interesting, it is said that apparently Elizabeth I queen of England may possibly have died from mercury in her make-up. So it's actually up until fairly recently that mercury was used in every day life including in Europe, not just in China or India.
LOL. It comes from ancient alchemy where mercury can be trasmuted to gold.
I tried panning for gold in my backyard and although I only found a couple tiny specks of gold I still have a little jar with half an inch of mercury in it from collecting beads of it from panning the soil.
Probably something like that.
The alchemists almost always tried to turn mercury into gold.
What’s been going on in your yard that there’s visible drops of liquid mercury?!? That’s not normal and EXTREMELY concerning. Mercury vapors and salts are crazy toxic, you need to get a soil analysis done asap. You may well be living on a future superfund site.
@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 are you dense? he was panning for gold, mercury is used to to extract and purify gold through amalgamation
Not as dense as mercury. And the amalgamation comment doesn't explain anything.
Mercury is used for *refining* gold from ore, if you're finding it while panning you got a serious fucking problem
Fine French clocks in the 19th cent were often gilded over their brass cases using flame gilding. Ground gold was heated in mercury and painted on. Made a lovely finish, nicer than electroplating but hideously toxic.
Never heard of that, have to look it up now
Ah the "death clocks" yeah thats a good one
All kinds of stuff got gold plated with fire and mercury. In many countries this is still considered a type of traditional handicraft.
flying aliens
Mercury is used with river water in many illegal gold mining operations in Central America, and I'm wondering why its used with gold.
This is a plot point used in Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett. I’m forever encountering stories from history and remembering them being mentioned in his books
Ol' Terry is/was a genius.
Would you be so kind to share the reference?
@@johnhough7738 When you're not sure if someone is still alive, and don't want to check.
@@delphicdescant Sadly, Sir Terry died a few years back now after a battle with Alzheimer's
Please make more videos about how ancient people obtained chemical substances. Thank you!
A long time ago, it was much earlier to find valuable ores in nature on the surface. Its has all been picked clean over time.
Do some research on history of asbestos .
Chemistry videos get the weirdest comments when they get discovered by people without an interest in chemistry.
yeah no kidding.
@@droopy_eyes Spot on analysis.
@@droopy_eyes
Add a dash of dunning krueger to this ignoramus dough and you get the majority of people in general. Mf'ers seem to actually run on a 'i think about blank therefore im an expert' these days.
I regret checking comments section
I was just thinking this is the best comment section I've so far encountered. Learned a lot of interesting things.
A relative (now in his late 90’s) of my husband, has made a living for many years by finding pockets of soil with mercury incorporated in it, digging it out, and rendering it on his old wood stove. He was healthy and coherent the last time I spoke with him.
I’m guessing the room where he does this had excellent ventilation, whether intentionally or from cracks in the walls and so forth. Or that wood stove is outdoors.
@@censusgary - this is the same stove he has cooked his meals on and used to partially heat his house. The place is not a mansion, but he has power, water and phone. His wife died some years back, but given his age, she was no teenager. His kids seem fine. ?????
@@judithgockel1001 Maybe the mercury has preserved him. Mercury does have antibacterial properties. 😜
@@censusgary - that was the theory behind the topical antiseptics of my youth - mercurochrome and merthiolate. Of course, I guess one factor in his preservation was that he was a Missouri man.
A retort is a must when heating mercury, anyone able to do this does it right or not for long.
Qin Shi's doctor was like, "hey take this, trust me bro"
Safe and effective
That's literally all doctors in the modern age.
modern day doctor, “hey take more vaccine jabs, trust me, i m medical doctor”
history repeats in mysterious plans.
Well, considering how evil he was, I am not surprised they wanted him dead, Ss-hm6cg.
@@mitsuracer87 Why do you spread lies like this?
This channel has so much potential!!! I love science and history of science. It would be great if you could go into more depth for the chemistry and cover some more complex topics!
We charted a path to the moon and back using slide rules and hand script - it's not unbelievable that our ancient forebearers were able to derive mercury from the bounty of this planet.
Well this is a well known historical fact not even speculation.
Subscribed. Great premise for a channel! I have a PhD in media history but know nothing about chemistry. I have a longstanding interest in art/painting and have been reading about the history of pigments for years. I never realized just how much trial and error goes into accessing and processing of materials like cinnabar. In fact, I was very surprised to learn about the vital role that metallurgy and alchemy played in all this. Even though alchemy led to a lot of quackery, it seems to be where a lot of practical knowledge was gained about all kinds of materials, including pigments for art and painting. I was also fascinated to learn about the role of early chemistry in synthesizing all kinds of important pigments in the modern era. It all made me wish I took some introductory chemistry classes during undergrad. Anyway, so happy to have found your channel!
PhD in media history? Does your mother knows about that? 🥳🤪🤣🤡
One of my great-grandfathers made his money mining quicksilver (mercury) in California during the gold rush. It was used to refine the placer gold by forming an amalgam. The area where I now live was a “mining district” and there are a number of abandoned cinnabar mines near here. The crushed cinnabar ore was heated in brick retorts by wood fires and the liquid mercury drained out the bottom and collected in iron pipe “flasks”. After the gold amalgam was formed it was again heated to drive off the quicksilver and collect the gold.
Props to you for getting the pronunciation of Qin Shi Huang the most correct out of any history talking channel on TH-cam I've seen. Though just a tip, the Q in mandarin is pronounced with a more ch tone (like how you'd pronounce tai chi). Also fun fact: the common name for mercury in mandarin 水银, literally translates to liquid silver
isn’t 水 the character for water? Or is it different in Chinese than Japanese
@@ethancollinsworth3927yes it is, but in this context it’s meaning is much closer to liquid
700,000 workers for 40 years? Holy shit.
Makes me wonder about how many man-years the the pyramids of egypt took to build
Slaves do not work has hard has religious devotees. I think the numbers are a bit exaggerated in the record. "The might of the empire must not be questioned." Made them look greater than they really were. State propaganda of the time. They had to show that they were just has powerful after the great ruler died.
I still don't know why they wouldn't, at least, try to send a robot in there? Is the elevated mercury levels to the point where they are scared to even keep digging enough to uncover the entrance, or is that already open?
@@MrChristianDT well, it's all buried under millions of tons of dirt now... Inside it may have all collapsed... so there's perhaps nowhere for a robot to go....
Anyway, they have said for decades that they want to move very slowly and allow archeological science to get to a point where they can be sure they won't mess anything up by excavating...
So the mercury is only one of a range of concerns....
thats only our ideas, pyramides were built. No slaves built pyramides. They were built by highly competent beings which were different from us, without any effort.
The red pyramid (first real pyramid) was build relatively quickly.
From 2640 bc to 2620 bc.
let me guess: they burned rocks
Half yes, the video also talks about grinding cinnabar in a copper pot with vinegar causing chemical reactions that can extract elemental mercury without heat.
Crazy how making a rock salad was also the correct answer
Your results may differ from the ancients' due to your use of an artificial ingredient. Were you to use the same ore as they, you might find impurities which aid the processes reported to work but which failed in your testing.
I had the same thought. It reminded me of the source of iron ore used into the original (real) "Damascus steel" (not to be confused with pattern welded steel, which the internet these DAYS *calls*!Damascus). The went back to the original mine, as well as testing genuine examples of the alloy by which the "legend" was inspired, and found that the steel produced there not only DID possess superior characteristics, but that the reason it was superior was due to the micro-scale presence of other metals, like neodymium (among others). The presence of those "adulterants" was previously believed to have little to no effect on the properties of the steel. Not only was that not true, but the effect was in fact *significant*, and that they were NOT present in the ores used to produce less storied steels.
And in addition by altering the shape of a ceramic or stone kiln pipe you could get way more oxygen into your proces.
In 7th grade I heated cinnabar in a flask and condensed the vapor in a cooled tube yeilding liquid mercury.
Gold and Mercury are fould close together, sometimes the gold is in the mercury and its in its liquid state naturally
Fascinating stuff. I'd not encountered your channel before so I've subscribed and will take a look around. I'm also really interested in the history of science, although my academic background is in physics and volcanology rather than chemistry.
The indian temples were obsessed with mercury. Also the yogis are known to drink mercury
That would explain why older yogis are quite mad.
You could buy it as a digestive medicine until rather recently.
Those yogis could be galaxy hopping aliens
A quick way to madness and death.
the mercury at 00:10 😫😫💦💦
It's wet 💦
Not to be that guy, but its really not....@zainmudassir2964
Qin Shi Huang wasn't actually the first emperor of china, as China had in fact been unified many times prior (their history is actually one long cycle of fragmenting under civil war, reunifying, and then fragmenting again so many times that for millennia they actually assumed it was the natural order of things). The reason he's called the "first emperor" is actually a complex translation error.
See, China is so ancient that it's oldest rulers are quite literally shrouded in myth; the traditional timeline says that the very first rulers were these demigods known as the "Three _Huang_ and Five _Di."_ But when Qin took the throne, he invented for himself the combined title of _Huang Di,_ (which all Chinese heads of state carried from then on), since he was just that narcissistic.
Now in English the title of _Huang_ is usually translated as "Augusts" or "Soverigns," and _Di_ is usually translated as "Emperor," so you'd think that _Huang Di_ would be rendered as "Soverign Emperor" or something simmilar, right? Nope. That too is also translated simply as "emperor" for some reason. And since he was China's first _Huang Di,_ he is also erroneously called China's first emperor as well.
I think he was considered first emperor because he was the first one who unify china under 1 government. The previous emperor/sovereign doesn't have direct control over entire china. They only control over vassal kings.
1:40 Amusingly ironic thing about it is that it’s the oxides, salts and organomercuric compounds that are bioavailable and therefore poisonous. If he had been taking pure, clean metallic mercury, it would have gone right through him harmlessly. We modern folk would still be laughing at the silly ancient who thought it would make him immortal but he would have lived a normal life span, and maybe not become an insane murderous despot in his final years.
So glad your channel got recommended, got a sub.
I remember as a kid in the 1970's and haven't my temperature taken my mother constantly reminding me to not bite down on the thermometer because the Mercury inside was poisonous or toxic. It was still better than having your temperature taken the other way.
Hahahaa your comment made me laugh
This was the funniest TH-cam comment I’ve ever read
That natron oil likely was a blend of light crude and saturated salt solution, that collected in the salt mines as an oily liquid. you probably could approximate it as a blend of sodium hydroxide and calcium carbonate, with sodium chloride, all as saturated solutions, and emulsify with some light mineral oil.
Centuries ago all kinds of unknown strange magical liquids (moisture dripping from a sacred catholic saint statue or whatever) were simply named "oils".
jeesh , was that an anvil floating in mercury ... ?
i knew it had buoyancy , ... but an anvil ...
They used to float an entire lighthouse lighting assembly on a bed of mercury as a bearing. .
Iron is approx 50% density of mercury, not just floating but half above the surface 😮
Maybe his coffin is floating in mercury? Open the tomb!
On the topic of floating, Saturn has such a low density that it would float in water. Though if you had an ocean big enough to float Saturn in the result would probably be a lot more exciting than that.
@@hedgehog3180 It'd mostly dissolve like cotton candy given to a racoon with water to dip it in, yum... where did it go? There's a video of that.
Thanks for a fascinating video. As some other commenters have said Cinnabar is this huge "deal" in Taoism. In kungfu there is all this language about "internal alchemy" and it's really awesome to get some "science of the history" to go with the myths, legends and the Rule Of Cool. Again thanks.
Excellent video. I can't believe you have less than 5.5k subs.
such a cool video and topic! keep up the good work :)
Watch Cody's Lab. He mined his own cinnabar on his family's ranch, and extracted the mercury out of it. This was years ago.
He's also the guy who floated the anvil in the clip at 3:15
YT algo marvel, i just subscribed. Chemistry from an historian perpective is such an interesting topic ! you could speak from any element in the ancient times i would enjoy learning it !
Actually been to Qing's tomb when I was a kid. It was truly a sight to be seen. Countless unique looking sculptures, in quite pristine condition, lined up line after line. As a kid, I thought they might come to life one day
why did i genuinely think the thumbnail said "is his womb filled with liquid mercury?"
when senpai blows his mercurial load
So interesting! Thanks for doing this.
Great vid. Was pondering this subject a couple days ago.
Holly crap!!!! An entire channel dedicated to chemistry history!!!!!!! ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
Thankyou so much! This is awesome.
It's incredible how important it is to document and preserve knowledge. How come ancient techniques can become such a mystery without the proper documentation... Even though we're centuries ahead in scientific knowledge and comprehend the universe much more than those before us, we still can't manage to find out how ancient civilizations did some things, like the Greek fire or this.
Anyway, great video, new subscriber here.
they got it from thermometers
That was mind-blowing!!! thank you❤ I'm a new subscriber. I love your channel 🤟
My best story of mercury came from an older co-worker of mine. It dates back to the 60s or 70s. Apparently, when he was at high school, the guy was left alone in the chemistry room at school for some task or other, where there was a hugely oversized test tube of mercury, somewhere in the multiple liters range on display. Even there we are completely outside anything that would be thinkable now. But the story goes on. He picked it up, and, for whatever reason, turned it over. Mercury being heavier than you would expect, the stopper came out of the vessel and all the mercury spilled on the floor. Did they call in the fire department? Have the whole classroom cleaned and refurbished by a professional waste spill cleanup company? No. The student was given a brush and a dustpan and told to sweep up the mercury, which he did. Of course what he swept up was no longer clean mercury but rather a murky, dirty mess. So did the teacher send it to a waste disposal specialist? No. He had the guy dig a hole in the school parking lot, dump the whole load in there and bury it. Is it true? I don't know, I wasn't there at the time. COULD it be true? Given what other things they did in the 60s and 70s, absolutely.
Coming generations will talk about out microwave based cellphone towers and wifi polluted homes with the same horror.
@@AerialTheShamen I would not put GHz-range radio signals on _quite_ the same level as mercury lethality wise.... For starters because of the imbalance of confirmed - that is *_CONFIRMED_* deaths. Millions have been exposed to mercury for thousands if not tens of thousands of deaths. BILLIONS have been exposed to microwave radiation for... maybe a three-figure death toll? There was that one guy who disabled the safety interlock on his microwave oven and stuck his head in, essentially cooking his gray matter... what there was of it to begin with. And then there was that one guy who was hit by a falling cell phone antenna in a storm... but other than that
This is one of the exact things I always wondered about ancient civilizations.
Don’t know how aI find this channel but this sort of content appeals to me so much. Keep it up!
When I was in the 8th grade, the science teacher demonstrated mercury by placing a nearly full clear glass "ramekin" of mercury on his desk. Anyone (which meant everyone) who wanted to stick their finger in it was welcome to do so. Protective gloves weren't a thing at that time in public school science classes. And, if one had a dime - many were silver at the time - the dime could be dunked in the mercury to produce a very shiny amalgam coating.- which then went into the owner's pocket and probably promptly forgotten.
And now, they’re either born brain damaged already, or their parents indoctrinate them into religion and mercury makes no difference.
"...nobody knows it it's true or not..."
I'm not even sure that it is/was possible. That is an awesome amount of mercury ...
Thank you for an interesting and informative episode, very much appreciated.
You'll never find out, China will never open the tomb because it already takes all the cultural and political credit for everything that could be inside, so the actual tomb can only contain disappointment. Egypt now pulls this same routine through a guy named Zahi Hawass, they carefully curated his image as "the" native Egyptian Egyptologist and then had him oppose the opening or investigation of just about everything so that if any archeologist opposes him they're being "disrespectful" and "racist"; their career comes into immediate danger. You can safely ignore archeology for the rest of your life as nothing new will be discovered during it.
I never liked the nice Mr Hawass. Okay, he sweats a lot but that's not his fault. And he splutters, but I think that could be part of his cultural environment; I guess they do that in Egypt ... but he is dogmatic and seems to control access to "cultural heritage". He appears to hold the keys, and gets to pick who can and cannot have access where HIS heritage is concerned.
I always wanted to go there and see/feel relics for myself but never shall (so thank heavens for the wwweb and modern technology~!)@@Suiseisexy
@@Suiseisexy He literally lead an excavation of a tomb last year you dolt.
@@Suiseisexy *archeology of those specific areas
Although Egypt being more open to tourism has allowed some ineteresting guerilla archeaology to take place.
@@johnhough7738 That and despite being from an archaeology background, his real job is about politics and economics. Poltics, as you pointed out - and economics, he's *on record* for saying that with already so much mystique around egypt, any new finds would only risk losing interest rather than gaining interest, that let people argue over how it was constructed or used because those people are now more motivated to visit and generate more interest.
To be fair, mercury oxide is much more common, because it is one of the only elements that can effectively oxidize mercury, mercury is actually very inert in terms of metals, which makes its toxicity a surprise.
Mercury has a relatively high vapour pressure and the highest volatility of any metal, vapourizing to become a colourless, odourless gas. Cases of poisoning with mercury metal is always by inhaling the vapors. Until the 1990s mercury thermometers were fairly common in household use. The danger was when a thermometer broke in an unventilated room and the mercury metal was not removed.
& yet, th-cam.com/video/NJ7M01jV058/w-d-xo.html.
@@bromisovalum8417The main danger were not thermometers but "energy saving lightbulbs" those were actually fluorescent tubes filled with mercury gas. No matter if they falsely advertised it was "amalgamated" and hence harmless. During operation, the lamp always evaporated it (thats how they work) and because half of the lightbulbs shatter when lit, you can imaging the enormous quantity of such incidents inside closed rooms, and only few people (depending on winter coldness) really did vent it for an hour after again yet another such lamp shattered.
@@AerialTheShamen I remember we were flooded with cheaply manufactured 'energy saving bulbs', just before the advent of white LED days. Everyone was touting it as thé environmental alternative, downplaying any mention of mercury vapor or giving you the conspiracy cook frown if you mentioned it. I've seen them shatter on more than one occasion in unventilated rooms.
@@bromisovalum8417And there were recycling boxes for them in supermarkets etc. where people were throwing them in (despite instruction to return each ESL lightbulb in cardboard package), so there was for sure plenty of mercury vapor in the air and the nearby foods they sold.
Wow mind blowing the info prehistoric civilizations garnered
when I was in primary school about 1979 I was 9 years old. The teacher brought in a bottle of mercury, poured it into a bowl and passed it around the class and we all played with it.
Another interesting historical use of mercury. Lighthouses needed to rotate the very large and very heavy optics/lenses around the light. Now we can build large and very precise bearings that can hold that weight. For a long time however it was easier to float the lenses on a pool of mercury.
Mercury often seeps out of cinnabar deposits, where the ore has broken down
You are the next big thing on youtube!
Its crazy how our knowledge has evolved overtime
This video is awesome. Welldone 👍
A great video! It takes you away from the commonly accepted world and start wondering.....
Above Wenatchee Wa, there were pools of mercury discovered and mined in the 1800s.
Any links about this?
Great in-depth video! I’ve subscribed.
Perhaps the mercury vapors contributed to the preservation of the body
Seeing this documentary (and especially the latin bit passing on screen at 6:40, where they mention "emittit lacrimas argenti vivi" which can be translated into "issued live silver tears" ) I started to think about the fact that, here in Italy, we sometimes say that people (children mainly) that are overexcited and can't stop moving around have the "argento vivo addosso", which translates into "you have live silver on you".
One of the effect of mercury intoxication is overexcitement, tremors, change of personality...
I get now where that "you have live silver on you" way of say now comes from!!!
Mercury occurs naturally in a stone called cinnabar. In a rich cinnabar deposit, if you dig a well, it will fill up with cinnabar. The emperor's tomb is in one of these areas. I have been there, and I did a lot of research before and after. Such an interesting and important site!
Cinnabar sounds like some kind of delicious baked good. 😊
Cinnabon, that smell! Oh I'm at the mall just inside the main entrance across from the arcade.
Sounds like some kind of star wars metal or something.
Lakes of mercury, maybe, flowing rivers no : flowing implies energy an a mechanism to keep it flowing.
And a very strong one would be needed as mercury is quite dense and heavy.
But expands nicely under heat to make a percolator like flow possible? Check valves? Chinese pumps had many methods.
People are so dramatic ah
I thought it was diamagnetic so it could move from interaction with a magnetic field? Also, I was under the impression that mercury "becomes lighter" as its speed increases?
"Become lighter" is a bad way of putting that. I meant to say I thought it gained more and more superfluid-like properties(reduced friction) when it increases in speed?
I worked at a carbonatious gold ore roaster in Nevada and we always had mercury in dips at shutdown.
What is "mercury in dips at shutdown"? Cheers
Very interesting! and well written. Subbed!
that swimming anvil still astonishes me - as much as the amount of mercury just happily floating around. high vacuum chambers are hooked up to what's basically a water-stream-pump, just run with mercury
Was thinking about that just the other day, thank you for the illumination, very interesting. wonder what other methods for things we know or we've lost have been buried or burned in the scrolls of history
I have heard that the Mayan or Inca royalty used to bathe in huge vats of mercury. I imagine that would feel almost how it feels to chew 5 gum..
Yeah, and doing it a lot might give you aches and pains 🙃 not really, I think it would be fine and so shiny
Mercury was commonly used for constipation as well until recently. The weight of the mercury encouraging passing of stool. Mercury itself isn't all that toxic acutely. It's the organic molecules containing mercury which have high toxicity. As well as of course mercury vapor from boiling mercury used in hatting...
In Ayurvedic medicine in India it is organic mercury that is claimed to be non-toxic and they still do sell quack pills of it.
When I was a kid I knew a boy about 6 years old who had some mercury in a bowl that he carried around to show his friends. They all touched it and played with it.
Metallic mercury is not very reactive. They would have absorbed negligible amounts
Nice video ❤. Please do a video about usage of mercury in ancient medical systems around the world.
the hill seems to be flourishing green ... would that be the proof that trees and plants are immune to mercury vapors and absorption ?
Excellent question. I'm thinking their not.
No, the levels of mercury in the air are nowhere near toxic. Also trees will just grow anywhere, Chernobyl is also green. It's just that so long as the ground isn't so toxic that trees literally can't take root they'll just grow there and die quicker than elsewhere and get replaced.
Nah, the trees are just REALLY dumb, now.
Thank you, I've always been curious how mercury was made, I wonder what uses it has, that's my next job.
Metal refining and very simple sensors.
Rotating Liquid Mercury can be used to make a telescope. The negative drawback is it can only be used straight up, as tipping would cause the liquid to pool on one side and even tiny vibrations can distort and blur the image. But up until recent times the USA Navy used liquid mercury to keep track of Sidereal time (Star time). I believe the ancients also used liquid mercury to view and track the nighttime stars.
I remember a news story from a city in Russia where a young couple rented an apartment and found a 1 gallon jar of mercury in a closet. They couldn't think of anything better than pouring that entire content into the sink drain. A half of the city had to be evacuated and decontaminated after that.
It is a lie. I am from Russia, and nothing like that in this contry nobody know. And many people, who was born in Soviet Unite, can say you, that in their childhood they played with mercury, and nothing bad with their health was not become from all this year, they have no proplems with health or mind. Now mercury is illegal in Russia, bad many people, who had much mercury in past, will laught, if you say, that mercury is toxic. In Russian TH-cam you can see video, where one man drink it, he is director in one Khyrgystan (small contry not far away from Russia, it was part of SU and because it a lot of people know russian in this contry) organisation working with mercury and cinnabar. I can give you URL-addres of this video, if you want.
P.S. sorry my english, I can make some mistakes in my text
Nope. In Russia they just would have kept silence about the incident and arrested everybody who was impudent enough to dare to speak about it.
@@AerialTheShamenproof?
In my chemistrty class we had a babyfood jar of it with a tube producing a barometer. It just sat there open topped. Anyone could grab it. Someone did and ingested some. It was still there when i graduated in 76, long after that incident. Oh wow !
I can understand that the ancient Chinese could have produced liquid mercury. But you say 'rivers of flowing mercury' several times. How did they get the mercury to "flow"? What was the mechanism, the engine, the machine, magic that caused the mercury to "flow"? Is it "flowing" still?
Good video!
There is no mystery. Mercury forms in a liquid state insde calcite. With calcite being all that's added to cinnabar to exstract liquid mercory in a rosting process. So yeah, nature shows us the chemistry the same as it did then.
YOU READ MY MIND WITH THIS ONE
is there a vapor pressure to mercury so that over a long time it'll evaporate from any pools underground in tombs?
Google says "Mercury's freezing point is -37.6°F, so it's always evaporating."
Yes. I often wondered this.
Fascinating! I noticed they tried the hot method in a closed system but the ancients most likely used bellows which would have provided more oxygen for the reaction right? And wasn’t there way more oxygen in the atmosphere back then?
How did they make Gold goblets with emeralds and ruby?
Was there a Tiffany shop for the crown jewels?
Massive megaton block structures worldwide... like Tewkesbury Abbey, Notre Dame, Oxford University (all built with 50 years of each other 1000 years ago)
The ball on spire was filled with Mercury, and converted Mercury to Gold when struck by lightning. (Japanese scientist converted Merc to Gold in 1925)
Smh
@@timlewis7218Weirdly, there IS a NYT story about it from 1925. I just Googled it. Doesn’t mean the physics behind the story is true, at all, but the story itself exists. Would not have expected that.
I'm pretty sure if you could convert mercury to gold by just striking it with lightning, we'd be doing that so much that it'd just be ubiquitous and common knowledge.
Of course, that isn't how nuclear chemistry works.
Gold has almost double the nucleons of mercury so where did they come from?
Also you do know that Oxford University wasn't built all at once right?
1. With little hammers. Gold is very soft, so it can be beaten into shape while at room temperature. In ancient times, gold leaf was made by placing gold between two calf hides, and then just beating it with a rock until it was as flat as paper. It's that easy to work with.
2. Crown jewels were a one-off thing. They're not meant to be replaced, so there wouldn't really be a "store" for them. They would have been made by master craftsmen of the time though. Someone like Tiffany would be a perfect example, since he literally owned some crown jewels at one point.
SKIP TO 5:30 TO AVOID THE POINTLESS HISTORY FILLER YOU ALREADY KNOW ABOUT.
Appreciated
You spend too much time on tik tok
@@sathtyler i have never been on tik tok.
Thanks ❤
The guy has history in the name. If you don't want to hear about history, don't watch his channel. It's as shrimple as that lol
5:27 is when they get to the point of the video. You’re welcome!
Yeah, that's when the video starts
1:27 When someone touches mercury, the body reacts and puffs up, turns sort of red. People assumed that was a good thing.
Getting mercury from the right ore is pretty easy. Heat the ore and condense out. Easier than distilling alcohol.