From the fall of 1961 to the end of school in the spring of 1965, I taught the fifth grade. I had several adventures. One dealt with science.
We had a workdesk that included clamps that could be used for demonstrations. Each year, we had a unit on weather. Making an old fashioned mercury barometer seemed promising. I had a tall glass tube arranged so that I could pump mercury up the tube. I planned to let atmospheric pressure equalize a column of mercury to show it could do so.
I had the class sit near around the workdesk to watch. But when I tried to pump mercury up the tube, nothing moved. I could feel pressure from the pump so it seemed to be working. I looked along the apparatus and saw a shuttlecock along it. I realized the shuttlecock was closed and that was my problem. I opened it. Much bigger problem right away! The good little pump was holding the pressure I had put in it and the open shuttle allowed the pressure to shoot mercury clear through the open tube near the kids watching the demo.
I really didn’t know much about mercury but I sensed it was not good to fool with. I sent the class outside on an impromptu recess. I scooted around the area with a trash can and some index cards. They were very good at shoveling the mercury into bigger globs and into the trash can. As I was getting it cleaned up, I realized I had some on my wedding ring. I thought I remembered something about mercury hurting gold. I took the class encyclopedia and found an article that stated that it did and that one could separate the mercury off by heating it. I put the ring on an asbestos stand and put the flame of a Bunsen burner on it. I was just wondering how hot I had to get the arrangement to vaporize the mercury when I saw the side of the ring melting. I immediately removed the flame and let the whole thing cool.
Later, I showed the ring with its slightly collapsed side to Lynn. Except for the melted part, we had identical rings. She took it to a jeweler and asked him to restore it some. He asked if her boy friend was a mechanic. I am wearing that slightly collapsed, slightly restored ring right now.
