Unlocking the Secret: Transforming Mercury to Gold Using Everyday Materials

[whocouldshebe]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesis_of_precious_metals"

I'm no nuclear physicist or anything but with all the tiny bits of nuclear waste we have in all our electronics, paints, materials, etc. it seems that turning mercury to gold would be fairly easy to do with things you would otherwise discard. I'm into computer repair so I've got tons of laptop batteries as well as piles of rechargeable AA, AAA, watch batteries etc. boxes all over my house that must be disposed of properly, meaning, I cannot just return them directly to the Earth from which they came, if that makes any sense at all... LOL

If I were to pile them all up inside a small lead tube with a lead bottom then top it off with wax (leaving the tiny materials themselves still covered in their gold/aluminum coated cases) this should channel all the slow particle radiation from those devices into one direction. Then I could set a container of mercury on top and wait a month or so for it to half life into gold then separate it out through steam evaporation?

Just a thought that popped through my head today... Am I over simplifying this?

 

[Borek]

Am I over simplifying this?

It is even worse, parts of what you wrote have nothing to do with reality. There is no "bits of nuclear waste" around.

 

[JaredJames]

I think the OP has taken the "dispose of properly" notice and assumed it refers to nuclear material.

That's definitely a first.

 

[pallidin]

From:
http://www.herebeanswers.com/2009/10/process-of-turning-mercury-into-gold.html


"So, theoretically, if we can expel one proton from the nucleus of an atom of mercury, we have transmuted it into an atom of gold. The process is difficult since an atom of mercury has eighty electrons; eighty orbits have to be broken through as well as the electric field round the nucleus. The first experiment was, however, carried out years ago at the Physical-Technical State Institute of Berlin. The bombarding particles were given a high speed by means of a field of 30,000 volts, and a small, but observable quantity of gold was produced from quicksilver. Unfortunately, such laboratory transmutation can never be reproduced on a commercial scale."

 

[whocouldshebe]

It is even worse, parts of what you wrote have nothing to do with reality. There is no "bits of nuclear waste" around.

Yeah right, wink wink, who do you work for the news?

Obviously you've never read "The Radioactive Boy Scout"...
http://www.wesjones.com/silverstein1.htm#source"

 

[JaredJames]

Nope, he works for the reality police.

 

[whocouldshebe]

From:
http://www.herebeanswers.com/2009/10/process-of-turning-mercury-into-gold.html"So, theoretically, if we can expel one proton from the nucleus of an atom of mercury, we have transmuted it into an atom of gold. The process is difficult since an atom of mercury has eighty electrons; eighty orbits have to be broken through as well as the electric field round the nucleus. The first experiment was, however, carried out years ago at the Physical-Technical State Institute of Berlin. The bombarding particles were given a high speed by means of a field of 30,000 volts, and a small, but observable quantity of gold was produced from quicksilver. Unfortunately, such laboratory transmutation can never be reproduced on a commercial scale."

Later they discover that shooting a proton rather than electron through a medium such as wax will slow it down, which increases the chances of hitting that other proton out several fold. Electrons are tiny and fast. It is very unlikely they will get in the way of a proton beam.

I'm not talking commercial, I'm talking slum city, I see countries like China in the trash cities with thousands of houses piled full of electronic junk, that's where we ship all those toxic computer parts that the city charges you to dispose, or some electronics store collects for from you for free then dumps them in these slums. Thousands of needy families get paid $5 a day to strip down toxic components and separate them out.

The particles emitted from the radioactive batteries, smoke alarms, and paints is said to travel from 3 to 7 centimeters before it is destroyed by air or destroyed by contact with dead skin (just don't eat it or get it in a cut). They are slowed because of their casing (gold and aluminum) which is the same materials they used in the lab test you mentioned where they actually did turn some mercury to gold. Adding the layer of wax between makes it even more plausible if you will, basically creating a mini proton gun.

I imagine if you are already working in a toxic waste dump like these folks it would be fairly simple for you to just set some mercury atop of that americium (from fire alarms) lithium (for thorium) pile. These things pretty much purify themselves when you bring them together with a little bit of aluminum especially if you bring a gas burner into the picture, or you could get creative and build a heat ray from a satellite dish and tiny broken up CDs/DVDs, if you live in the slums it's not like you don't have time on your hands to do this anyway.

All I'm asking is if these radioactive materials, while still encapsulated in their aluminum/gold case, if piled under a thin wax plate, with mercury a couple centimeters away on top of the wax plate above, all encased in a lead tube, if even a small amount of that mercury would turn to gold?

The cost today is a bit irrelevant, since you could get rich in the first place by just charging people the lowest price to take these non-disposable materials off their hands. Then if you could arrange that junk in such a way that over a period of months it manufactures a little gold, then the commercial applications on a small scale become quite feasible.

You get paid to collect the materials and the equipment you need can be built from scrap materials for free as well. On the down side, you get exposed to a little radiation. I doubt this is an issue for anyone who is already handling these toxic electronics daily on a large scale.

 

[Borek]

Obviously you've never read "The Radioactive Boy Scout"...

This was not waste taken from "all our electronics, paints, materials, etc." - he collected isotopes from devices where isotopes were intended part of the device.

 

[Naty1]

All I'm asking is if these radioactive materials, while still encapsulated in their aluminum/gold case, if piled under a thin wax plate, with mercury a couple centimeters away on top of the wax plate above, all encased in a lead tube, if even a small amount of that mercury would turn to gold?

One day someone mayfigure out everyday transmutation, but it doesn't seem possible yet.

 

[Drakkith]

Another issue is that Mercury has 6 stable isotopes while Gold only has 1, 197 Au.

With so many different isotopes you would get multiple isotopes of Gold produced with many of those NOT being stable. (IE being radioactive.)

 

[Drakkith]

Also, the vast majority of radioactive particles do NOT eject a proton, but an electron or alpha particle.

 

[chickenz]

Like others in this forum, I don't think it's possible. However, even if it were, and supposing the process was somehow inexpensive, then why?

Gold's value comes from the fact that it's shiny, pretty, and rare. Take away it's rarity by mass producing it, and you've got a whole bunch of yellow stones whose value becomes solely determined by its demand in industry.

 

[Borek]

Trick is to sell as much as you can before buyers realize it became worthless.

 

[chickenz]

Trick is to sell as much as you can before buyers realize it became worthless.

Ooo. I bow before your genius.

But of course, gold still has some awesome properties that make it a useful material. But you could no longer justify the $1500 per ounce price tag.

 

[davenn]

[

The particles emitted from the radioactive batteries, .

Radio active batteries ? none of the hudreds of batteries of different types I use
emit any form of radioactivity, nor in any of my electronics or paints !
How do I know ? my geiger counter tells me so
It seems you are getting some serious mis-information from somewhere

there's really only 2 common sources of radioactivity in the household smoke detectors
and those people that have the old analog wrist watches with luminous dials, yup, those dials are radioactive

thats other than my and a few other homes that have collections of radioactive minerals as part of rock and mineral collections


cheers
Dave

 

[whocouldshebe]

It's funny how many people don't realize how easy it is to get all the thousands of radioactive isotopes from the common electronics we use everyday. Anything that emits energy is radio-active, even radio waves, it's just that they are practically harmless unless given in extreme doses. You're more likely die of old age before you'd die from cancer caused by the electronics these common items.

I didn't say eject electrons, I suggested creating proton beam/gun using wax like they did in the old days. The end result would would be stable gold. Hitting it directly with electrons only would make only radioactive gold, hitting with protons only though is a different story. Either way though, check you out the half-life of gold isotopes, listed as only a few days, so who cares? Mercury has a few radio active isotopes as well, from a couple of days up to 72 days, once again, a very short wait.

Mercury only has one isotope at it's lowest level that lasts a few hundred years, no big deal, once you isolate the gold from the mercury through evaporation, like they did in the old days, all you have to do is put ALL the mercury right back into the gun an it will jump up more levels or turn into more gold, either way, just keep it up until no radio active mercury is left... The process is just nature at hyper-speed.

Regardless, it is a lot easier to trans-mutate into nuclear materials which are worth far more than gold anyway. I guess that's why we only trans-mutate into nuclear grades because once it goes nuclear it is worth much more than gold, so there would be no need to stop at gold, just another worthless abundant element in comparison to all the other much rarer more expensive radioactive elements.

 

[JaredJames]

It's funny how many people don't realize how easy it is to get all the thousands of radioactive isotopes from the common electronics we use everyday. Anything that emits energy is radio-active, even radio waves, it's just that they are practically harmless unless given in extreme doses. You're more likely die of old age before you'd die from cancer caused by the electronics these common items.

You might want to check the definition of radioactivity: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/radioactivity

1. Spontaneous emission of radiation, either directly from unstable atomic nuclei or as a consequence of a nuclear reaction.
2. The radiation, including alpha particles, nucleons, electrons, and gamma rays, emitted by a radioactive substance.

Everyday items do not conform to it. End of story.

Do you honestly believe it's that easy to make gold? Why not go ahead and do it - call us when you're a millionaire.

 

[Rap]

It's funny how many people don't realize how easy it is to get all the thousands of radioactive isotopes from the common electronics we use everyday. Anything that emits energy is radio-active, even radio waves

Umm - no. Radioactive means emitting high-energy particles. Radio waves, microwaves, light bulbs, etc all emit low energy EM radiation, which is not radioactivity.