on mercury

I just had the scare of a lifetime yesterday.

Because we were not able to do the vacuum-filtration and the melting point determination of the products for Experiments 2 and 3 last meeting, the deadline for the post labs for both exercises was moved one week later, on the 16th of February. So, right at the start of the lab, I told Jessie, my lab partner, that I was going to finish the said experiments first before proceeding to the next.

I was about to measure the melting point of the product from Experiment No. 2. The machine didn't have a thermometer, so I pulled out ours from our drawer. I found out that one end was broken, and closely examined it, hoping that it wasn't end with the mercury bulb.

And then, with dread mounting up the pits of my stomach, I saw the air bubbles in the mercury column.

"AAAAAGH!!" I silently screamed to myself. Mercury, I had been taught since grade school, is a very toxic metal, and can debilitate the central nervous system, the lungs. I knew children who died after ingesting the mercury from a broken thermometer.

I told Jessie about it, who, in turn, reported it to Carlos, our TA (teaching assistant). Disappointingly, Carlos merely shook his head, and told us to get another one from the stock room. I was honestly expecting the news would alarm him, and the whole area to be quarantined. The spilled mercury must have vaporized, because we didn't see any liquid mercury beads in our drawer. (Mercury vapor, FYI, is more dangerous than liquid mercury, because it causes pulmonary edema.)

Jessie assured me not to worry, because the people at the stockroom said the thermometer must have already been broken when we checked it in. Relieved, and armed with a brand-new thermometer, I set on to complete my task.

But that wasn't all.

Much later, I realized that I forgot to remove our thermometer from the machine. It was still there, and, apparently, was still very hot -- it read 230 degrees Celsius. Then I did two things that were so infernally stupid you'd never expect someone like me, a PSHS graduate, a UP student, would do.

First thing: I dipped the thermometer in the ice-water bath to cool it quickly. At first I was amazed at my innate ingenuity, because the mercury level dropped 20-30 degrees in an instant. Than, a few seconds later, I heard a faint but unmistakable chink of breaking glass. It broke.

I quickly removed it, and frantically thumbed the bulb to see what happened. I didn't spill any mercury, but there was at least a visible crack on the side. After several minutes of worried inspection, I concluded that it was still OK. So I put the thermometer down, and kept quiet.

The second stupid thing I did, which was far worse than the first, was that I didn't tell Carlos or Jessie about it, because I was too embarrassed to tell them about my scientific misjudgment. Shame on me.

Anyway. I still had to measure the melting point of the acetaminophen sample from Experiment 3, and used the same thermometer. I was, at that time, quite sure that it still worked.

But at 230 degrees, the sample, which was expected to melt at 169 to 172 degrees, still wasn't melting. It was either the sample, or the thermometer, that caused the discrepancy. Unfortunately, I could not tell at that time, and truthfully recorded it in my post lab, as I had no other data to report. Even now, after scrutinizing the procedures we did, I still can't.

So, if ever I am indeed fatally poisoned by mercury, my dear friend, I will have posted my Last Will and Testament one week from now, which you may check out yourself. Who knows, you might just inherit something from me.