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Set up a vacuum flask with flexible intake tubing long enough to reach the mercury spill. Use glass tubing on the inside of the flask to reach nearly to the bottom on the intake side. On the other side (the side connected to the vacuum source) make sure the glass tubing reaches just inside the flask, near the top, so that the mercury entering the flask will not simply be sucked into the vacuum source lines. Use a two-holed rubber stopper to accomplish all this. This will give you a mercury vacuum cleaner, so to speak. Use a regulator and be careful to use just enogh vacuum to lift the mercury into the flask.
From Wikipedia.com (see Link to the left):A Büchner flask, also known as a vacuum flask, filter flask, side-arm flask or Kitasato flask, is a thick-walled erlenmeyer flask with a short glass tube and hose barb protruding about an inch from its neck. The short tube and hose barb effectively acts as an adapter over which the end of a thick-walled flexible hose (tubing) can be fitted to form a connection to the flask. The other end of the hose can be connected to source of vacuum such as an aspirator vacuum pump or house vacuum. Preferably this is done through a trap (see below), which is designed to prevent the suckback of water from the aspirator into the Büchner flask.See the Web Links and Related Questions to the left for more information.
Heat can be transferred in three ways: conduction, convection, radiation. In a vacuum flask, conduction and convection are greatly reduced through a vacuum (hence the name!) between two glass layers, whereas radiation is greatly reduced by the mirror coating on the same glass. As a result, heat takes much longer to get out - or in, since you can also keep cold things in a vacuum flask.Note that no vacuum flask will keep things hot (or cold) indefinitely; it simply takes much longer for hot things to cool down, or for cold things to heat up.
It can be seen to be beneficial to use amber glass instead of regular glass because amber glass has the ability to stop the effects of sunlight by blocking harmful UV rays.
You can filter it off using a sinted glass crucible, fine filter paper, a vacuum pump and a side-arm flask. If you don't have that sort of equipment: a filter funnel, filter paper and a conical flask should do.
Glass
becuase metal conducts heat
becuase metal conducts heat
The Thermos (vacuum) flask has a double skinned glass cylinder inside. Between the two walls of the glass cylinder is a vacuum. The glass cylinder is also silvered on all inner and outer surfaces. Both the vacuum and the silvering help to prevent the rapid cooling of a hot liquid, or the warming of a cold liquid. The vacuum inhibits heat transfer by conduction. The silvering reflects the heat and inhibits the heat escaping from the flask. Thermos (often used for a vacuum flask) is a trade-name.Eventually, as anyone who uses a vacuum flask, the once hot drink will have become cool by the end of the day.
Conduction and convection are reduced by the vacuum between the two glass layers.Radiation is reduced by the mirror plating.
A true vacuum, which is difficult to create, is a space where there is nothing. AN ordinary vacuum flask has "almost" a vacuum between its mirrored glass surfaces, but no matter how long the vacuum pump is trying to remove air from inside the glass walls there will always be some left. By Willyrhus
A true vacuum, which is difficult to create, is a space where there is nothing. AN ordinary vacuum flask has "almost" a vacuum between its mirrored glass surfaces, but no matter how long the vacuum pump is trying to remove air from inside the glass walls there will always be some left. By Willyrhus
Set up a vacuum flask with flexible intake tubing long enough to reach the mercury spill. Use glass tubing on the inside of the flask to reach nearly to the bottom on the intake side. On the other side (the side connected to the vacuum source) make sure the glass tubing reaches just inside the flask, near the top, so that the mercury entering the flask will not simply be sucked into the vacuum source lines. Use a two-holed rubber stopper to accomplish all this. This will give you a mercury vacuum cleaner, so to speak. Use a regulator and be careful to use just enogh vacuum to lift the mercury into the flask.
The main heat loss in a good thermos flask, is due to heat conducted through the material. (Glass or Stainless Steel). There should be little heat lost through the vacuum of the flask.
From Wikipedia.com (see Link to the left):A Büchner flask, also known as a vacuum flask, filter flask, side-arm flask or Kitasato flask, is a thick-walled erlenmeyer flask with a short glass tube and hose barb protruding about an inch from its neck. The short tube and hose barb effectively acts as an adapter over which the end of a thick-walled flexible hose (tubing) can be fitted to form a connection to the flask. The other end of the hose can be connected to source of vacuum such as an aspirator vacuum pump or house vacuum. Preferably this is done through a trap (see below), which is designed to prevent the suckback of water from the aspirator into the Büchner flask.See the Web Links and Related Questions to the left for more information.
The flask works because there is a gap between the inner and outer walls of the flask. During the manufacturing process the air in the gap is extracted and the opening is sealed - creating a vacuum between the walls. Heat transmits rapidly through air - but a lot less rapidly, in fact only very, very slowly, through a vacuum. A vacuum flask not only keeps heat in, it also keeps it out. If you put iced water into a vacuum flask it will stay cold for a very long time.
The vacuum space between the two silvered surfaces make efficient heat insulation against heat loss.