Off-topic technical trivia time: mercury was used in the mechanism of lamps in lighthouses. You’ve seen lighthouses that give off a sequence of flashes by which they can be identified. Well, you can’t flash a gaslight, carbide lamp, arc light etc like that. The lamp has to burn constantly. What you can do is to use a blind or screen. Make that blind into a revolving cylinder. Designing the open and closed sections and the speed at wich the cylinders turns just so, and you have a blinking light that gives out the desired sequence.
Now, this contraption has to run for years and years with precision and with a minimal wear and tear. At an age where ball bearings and similar stuff were a far cry from what we have today.
This is where the mercury comes in. Build a ring-shaped trough around the base of the lamp and fill it with mercury. Build the rotating blind so that it will float on the mercury. Near frictionless bearing with the added bonus that the axis of rotation will always be vertical.
You’d also need something like spokes to center the rotating blind and some sort of motor; a purely mechanical like for a large clockwork would do.
Also, arsenic.
Mercury is heavy, you’re more likely to get a Ja-bruise-y than a Jacuzzi, if you’re using mercury as the liquid.
Well, since Roman times metalworkers knew the hazards of lead and mercury - the disinformation campaigns created to counteract the common knowledge came hundreds of years after the medieval era. So, unlike American workers of the 50s and 60s, medieval metalworkers tried to avoid breathing the fumes as much as possible. “Gee I sure hope the wind don’t shift Aethelbert!”
All that being said, you’re entirely right, of course. Smithing was always a high-risk career and madness was just one of the risks.
Everyone exited about mercury should read Primo Levi. You’ll find out which book quickly.
Do yourself a favour and read the whole book, not only the Mercury chapter.
I liked hearing the clank of mercury hitting the steel dish as a solid. That was a first.
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