Mercury Research Papers

Mercury shares its name not only as an element but as Planet. Its name transcends other elements, perhaps due to its mystical appearance and composition. Mercury is one of the only metals that is liquid in room temperature. (Excluding Gallium since its achieves liquid state at a slightly higher temperature than room temperature which is great for pranking.) Mercury is also known as a quicksilver due to its mesmerizing appearance as a liquid like silver. It was also formerly known as hydrargyrum, which is Latin for watery silver hence its elemental symbol being Hg. While mercury behaves like a liquid it is about 13.6 times denser than water. When spilled, mercury keeps to itself and is collected fairly easy due to its density and its electron
Cinnabar (HgS, the natural compound mercury can be largely found in) was found in caves of France in Spain about 30,000 years ago as paint (Vermilion) from Paleolithic painters due to its bright red pigment. Mercury colored the world of the primal people and it didn't stop there. Many people believed mercury contained miraculous traits like immortality or forming gold. An emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang Di believed that ingesting mercury pills would bless him eternal life. While mercury appears benign it can be quite fatal once in enters the human body. The emperor took these pills, a mixture of mercury and jade, and sought eternal death rather than life. China, however, was not the only civilization to believe (that) mercury had healing properties. The Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians all used mercury in cosmetics and ointments due to its pretty front. Romans, on the other hand, found other uses for mercury in mining fields. Mercury can form amalgams with almost every metal and gold was not the exception. The process of mining the amalgams and distilling out the mercury(since it could easily achieve liquid state) left people with gold or with other desired metals. This innovation sparked riches and curiousity in people but it also carried many health risks. The Romans employed slaves into the mine shafts and many died due to mercury poisoning the lungs or seeping into the skin. Despite these side effects it did not deter the early scientist, or known as the 'alchemists'. Many alchemists believed that adjusting the proportion of sulfur in mercury compounds would produce different metals(in which many hoped to achieve to create gold.). Of course, early alchemists could not achieve their whimsical goals due to their lack of understanding of how elements