Re: Dented new toroids?

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

> Spinning with mercury inside will be fine if the toroid is steel.  If it's
> aluminium (or even aluminum) there will be a lot of heat and your nice toroid
> will start growing white whiskers as it turns into a heap of aluminium
> amalgam/aluminium oxide.  In my younger days, I used to "disintegrate"
bits of
> aluminium glazing angle by rubbing them with a solution of mercury
nitrate and
> watching with gleeful intensity as the metal oxidised away before my eyes -
> until it got so hot I dropped it.  Mercury and allie are not a happy
> combination.
> 
> Dunckx

	Interesting that you should mention this.  During the '50's there was
some work on "bullets" for aircraft guns which worked on a similar
principal.  Contained metallic mercury and sodium hydroxide.  On impact
they would smear this stuff on the aluminum surface and it would
eventually disintegrate.  Some of us experimented doing the same thing
to aluminum bars for locking our safes.  Bar stuck in the drawer
sticking out unsupported, drop of zinc/mercury amalgum applied to a
cleaned spot on top of the bar, and in as short a time as a few seconds
it would crack right off.

Ed