Mercury, The element, Info from a man in Pottstown

Mercury, also called quicksilver, is a chemical element with the symbol Hg (Latinized Greek: hydrargyrum, meaning watery or liquid silver) and atomic number 80. A heavy, silvery d-block metal, mercury is one of six chemical elements that are liquid at or near room temperature and pressure, the others being caesium, francium, gallium, bromine, and rubidium.

Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure. With a melting point of −38.83 °C and boiling point of 356.73 °C, mercury has one of the widest ranges of its liquid state of any metal.

Mercury occurs in deposits throughout the world mostly as cinnabar (mercuric sulfide), which is the source of the red pigment vermilion, and is mostly obtained by reduction from cinnabar.

Cinnabar is highly toxic by ingestion or inhalation of the dust, and mercury poisoning can also result from exposure to soluble forms (such as mercuric chloride or methylmercury), inhalation of mercury vapor, or eating fish contaminated with mercury.

Mercury is used in thermometers, barometers, manometers, sphygmomanometers, float valves, and other scientific apparatus, though concerns about the element’s toxicity have led to mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers being largely phased out in clinical environments in favor of alcohol-filled, digital, or thermistor-based instruments.

It remains in use in a number of other ways in scientific and scientific research applications, and in amalgam material for dental restoration. It is used in lighting; electricity passed through mercury vapor in a phosphor tube produces short-wave ultraviolet light which then causes the phosphor to fluoresce, making visible light.