Today I build a new mercury distillation apparatus in order to clean a massive amount of mercury. NileRed video: • Distilling Mercury Metal Help me make videos by donating here: / codyslab
spends hours destilling mercury ......then puts it in dirty bucket xD I think NileReds preciseness mixed with codys relaxed attitude would make the perfect scientist
Potassium-40, specifically. On his heavy water separation video I think he did say he had a friend who was trying to separate it isotopically, and I wouldn't mind Cody trying his hand at it
That's not really feasible. As Uncle Google and Wolframalpha helpfully inform me, he'd get roughly 4 mL (about 6 M&Ms) of potassium from one kg of bananas, assuming that large majority of it would be recoverable. And since about 0.012% of potassium found in nature is K-40, you'd need *more* bananas. Around 8.3 tonnes, to get this much K-40, to be precise.
Cody would you consider building a liquid mirror telescope with the mercury? You could use the secondary mirror and diagonal from the reflecting telescope you used in the flat-earth video. They are fascinating and there are VERY few videos on youtube about them. They offer the potential to make enormous telescopes for very little cost, as there is no glass used in the mirror.
I did that 30 yrs ago. Used a modified record turntable. Pyrex pie plate. Never let mom suspect. Washed it off and put it back in the pantry after every use. VERY hard to eliminate ripples from slightest vibration. Has to be wiped often to remove oxide film. Can only cover limited band of sky without distortion becoming too severe. Bloody great gulp of light in the rare moments of still clarity though. A year after I did it some French university students did one about 1m diameter, I beleive.
Besides distillation could you also purify the mercury with simple surface agitation under atmosphere so all the contaminants oxidize in time? Certainly distillation gives a better (and faster) result, but I wonder how pure you could get with agitation and occasional skimming. No real reason to try, I just found it interesting to think about. I've considered mercury as an option to alloy with magnesium/aluminum to make them more reactive at room temperature for various things. I've seen it work with a gallium/aluminum alloy to make the aluminum reactive with water.
Yes actually one option I considered was to place the mercury under a strong acid. since the mercury is pretty low on the activity series it would be one of the last to react. copper and zinc would be pretty easy to remove that way but lead would be harder (requiring nitric acid and a loooong time) and gold or silver would be impossible.
Cody, this project was *SERIOUSLY* impressive. I cannot even begin to explain how much respect I have for you pulling something like this off, with the time and materials available to you. Also, your narration for each step was top notch! I especially appreciated the part where you shared your solving of 'The Dripping Water Mystery' with us; I laughed my a$$ off!
@@jeremyluteran5242I think a lot of chemists end up dying below average age and indeed do have a lot of neurological issues. I had a teacher who would tell the same story almost every class.
According to AvE, those pressed charcoal briquettes have a significant portion of clay added as filler, which means tons of ash. Try and find some lump charcoal.
Remember back when you got 5,000 views on a video in a week? And then you made a vlog about how you got 5,000 views in a day and you were so surprised? And now you get 5,000 views in 30 minutes?
Jusb1066 you watch what they watch but you watch for free. They may get earlier access to the video but it's still the same video a couple hours later. Also these would not be able to watch at all free or not if someone didn't help help to pay for all the material he uses. Suck it up it will be ok.
BlazeChronicGreen420 if you didn't know, Cody releases videos for patreon supporters that he doesn't release for regular subscribers (he mentioned it in a reply to a different comment). i think that's why jusb1066 is angry.
Basically the mercury is very dirty, so he made a still, that heats the mercury, and as mercury has a lower boiling point than what's disolved in it, it evaporates, and condenses into the cant tube, then flows into the vask.
Its showing the welding that gets me. I've been on construction sites for 15 years, and I flinch every time welding is shown on camera for fear of being flashed.
no gas, self shielded wire... more spatter and more smoke, and welds dont look as good, but ideal for portable welding. A few seconds od welding doesnt hurt you really, just dont look in the arc
I love all this rusted-iron apparatus I see in some of your videos... It sort of reminds me of backyard industry meets medieval alchemy with a hint of blacksmithing thrown in. It's great.
Excellent effort and clarity of teaching skills, inspiring others to learn without the heavy handedness of being or trying to impress the viewer of how gifted they are. Teaches safety skills and their importance of cause and effect. No fancy decked out lab but great resourcefulness in using/ recycling whatever material is lying around. Don't underestimate his chemistry skills which come by not osmosis but studious study. Once again, excellent video and great teaching skills.
Cody, your inventiveness and ingenuity always amaze me. That coupled with your thoughtful nature and multifarious talents is what brings me back to your videos time and again. Just wanted you to know that I think you're an awesome individual and a fantastic content creator.
Mercury only have a half life in your body of about 40 days thank god. You just have to stay away from the organic mercury and keep your blood levels below 100 or thereabouts. Still not good to be messing around with it - I was never happy next to the mercury retort in the silver room, my mercury levels went up to 50 but are now bugger all.
I was watching your Uranium extraction video and my cat was laying next to me all interested. So I left the video on to clean and I look over and he was just fascinated by it and continued watching. It was amazing
It has been a blast to be along for the rise of your channel. You've got 1+ million subscribers and you're video is on trending. You deserve all the success. You have taught me so many different things and inspired me to do my own projects. Thank you thank you Cody. :D
Its so Cody to spend all that time cleaning this Mercury and then just empty it out in a dirty bucket...... a clean bucket you say??? Nah, this is Cody'sLab
Okay that big thing of mercury you had in the beginning... Funny story. My chemistry teacher used that as a hall pass. If you had to interrupt class to go to the bathroom, he would let you, but he made you take that with you. He had it on a long string because it weighed like 50lbs, and not many of us could carry it, lift it, set it down, lift it again, etc. So throughout the day, all over the school(small school) you would occasionally hear something loud, dragging across the floor and you knew it was someone from the science lab needing to go to the bathroom. His other hall passes included a stuffed deer leg, emu foot, stuffed Fox, a beaver tail, etc. Those were his hall passes where he needed someone to do something or another teacher needed them but if you had to go and interrupt class you had to drag the mercury thing. Best teacher ever. For real. He was one of the schools favorites. We were sad when he finally retired a few years after I graduated.
Love your Hg vids. Not all of us are cowed by the EPA and good sense. My father was I&E in the refineries and always salvaged silver contacts and Hg from thermostats (preh solid state) and had a 5 gallon glass Ozarka jug full. We were 9 and 6 and forbidden. Can you imagine a 9 yr old loosing control of a glass jug that big and heavy? Well we never let that deter us. Moment dad left for work it was time to tilt the jug and decant a gallon or two of liquid entertainment. Years later, every time life went wrong or we just seemed overwhelmed, my sister and I would reflect on possible brain lesions or genetic damage incurred. Worth every bit! Lol!
Cody we need you in my "bug out" crew. We all love you. I too was tickled by the comment about gold contamination but I gotta say this Cody. A gasifier IS a still. A water distiller, wood distiller, pretty much any distiller of anything is a type of still. Still is the stem of the word "distill". A gasifier is a distiller. Your teacher was right back then and nothing changed. Keep the videos coming. It's great to see the younger generation is still producing scientists with great minds.
@@danielvalle3789 Yep! A buddy and I were working with plasma from a transformer and being into photography, the same question occurred to me. In researching it I even found people showing off their setups for welding glass rigged to their cameras, so photo/video quality is left intact without compromising the camera. It isn't necessarily bad, but you run the risk of overloading sensors and creating dead pixels and similar issues.
When I distil, I don't use a pump for the cooling column at all, I use a pan that is around 6 inches deep and 2 feet by 4 feet and run the distillate through a coil in the pan that exits the pan at the bottom of the coil. The top inch of the water in the pan is boiling hot and evaporating, but the bottom of the pan still has cold water in it after more than an hour. It works great for me and is simple. But, I am not distilling Mercury. I imagine if you use 3/8 inch steel line for the coil, and you ad some way to ad cold water to the bottom of the pan, this method would work for what you are doing, and it would be super efficient on cooling the vapor while using minimal water. Thanks for the awesome video.
Yes, got any ideas? you seem to know more about electronics than me and I seem to be able to use explosives; perhaps a explosively pumped emp generator would be a cool build?
I know it's self shielding but I can honestly say it was somewhat painful to watch you weld... mostly because I know how much welding experience you have...
I remember my mechanic telling me how he got flash burns from squinting instead of using a mask. He said it hit him hours later when he was trying to sleep.
rafi:ki I'm not sure what that is supposed to mean. Scalar waves are a mathematical model, what is there to 'look into'. Unless you mean something different than I'm thinking of, which is probably the case judging by ShamblerDK response.
Emanuel Nemec ???? How? ?? Plastic and diesel/ gasoline are made from different fractions of crude oil how would you even turn a polymer into an oil...
+Justin Koenig distillation mate, polypropene is actualy really long chain hydrocarbon and once heated it gets cracked to mixture of gas gasoline and oil.
There is a process called thermal depolymerization that can be used to convert plastics into diesel fuels. It can convert other inputs into various fuels too, there was at least one pilot commercial plant that ran on turkey offal and produced liquid fuels and some solid products. At least until the stench lead neighbors to shut them down. Not sure what happened after that.
