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Nine out of ten hatters recommend that you don’t do this. The tenth hatter purple monkey dishwasher.
(Victorian-era hat makers were notorious for going mad because they used mercury to treat felt cloth.)
Is this the origin story of The Mad Hatter? 🙄
Could have been. I know Lewis Carroll liked to lampoon issues of the day in his writing.
I think the original idiom was “mad as a hatter” which was eventually shortened to “mad hatter”, possibly due to the Alice in Wonderland character.
I wonder what secondary compounds this was creating. Elemental mercury is pretty much fine, but if it was reacting with other things to create wacky fun times…
I think it was mercury nitrate. Much more soluble.
I thought it was the vapours from using mercury inside that got them.
Sneaky Simpsons reference here for those who didn’t notice.
It’s so much harder believing in six impossible things before breakfast when you’re allergic to quicksilver.
