HISTORY OF THE MERCURY FLASH

DELMAR K. MYERS

The Pennsylvania

State College, State College,

Pennsvhania

S r N m 1927 the common unit for measuring and pricing mercury has been a 76-pound flask. Of the several
explanations for this unusual unit, three seem important
enough to mention.
According to information from the U. S. Bureau of
Mines, the 76-pound unit was adopted in the United
States for the sake of uniformity and agreement with
Spanish practice. When the metric system was first
used in Spain the content of a standard mercury flask
was fixed a t 34.5 kilograms, which is equivalent to
76.06 pounds, approximately 76 pounds, one ounce.
Since the commercial production of mercury probably
originated in Spain it seems reasonable to believe that
the 34.5 kilogram unit had its beginning there. Before
the adoption of the metric system there were a number
of different "nounds" or "libras" in use in different oarts
of Spain and for different commodities, just as there
are different bushels used in the United States today.
However, there was a legal apothecary's libra which was
equivalent to 0.7606 pound avoirdupois. This unit
weighed thre+fourths as much as the legal avoirdupois
pound, which was 1.0143 U. S. avoirdupois pounds.
The early uses of mercury were largely confined to the
medicinal field, and therefore early purchases of this
metal may well have been on the basis of the apothecary's pound. Consequently, it seems possible that
our 76-pound unit had its origin as 100 Spanish apothecary's pounds, especially in view of the common metric
practice of using a multiple of ten, in this case the
quintal or hundredweight, to make larger metric units.
Secondly, it has been suggested that the 76-pound
weight unit for mercury had its origin as follows:
Taking the bushel measure as equivalent to 2150 cubic
inches and water a t the conventional 250 grains per
cubic inch, we find there are 537,500 grains per bushel;
at 7000
per pound we thenget 76.7 po;nds as the
weight of a bushel of water. At first this rather close
approximation seems logical and probable since several
.of our scientific constants are based on water as the
standard. However, it would seem from the facts
given above that this explanation is much too modern
t o be accepted.
The most probable explanation of the origin of the
~~

~~

~~~

76-pound unit is that it is related to a Spanish weight,

the arroba. This Spanish unit is usually equated to
25.36 avoirdupois pounds. Three of these units would,
therefore, equal 76.08 pounds or almost exactly 76
pounds, one ounce, the exact contents of a flask of
mercury, rather than 76 pounds as it is usually stated.
The flask itself, as may be seen in the illustration, is
approximately 18 inches long and 4 inches in diameter.
It is made of cast iron and fitted with a
threaded iron plug. The weight of this container,
plus the three arrobas of mercury, is about all a man
can be expected to handle conveniently and regularly.
Perhaps it would be more nearly correct to say all that
a slave could handle, as the unit was used as early as
Roman times when slaves and prisoners of war worked
the Almaden and Idrian mines in S ~ a i n .

Those persons associated with cinnabar mines and

mercury distilleries in California, as far back as they
can remember, can recall no other unit ever having
been used, and the standard flask in use today contains
76 pounds, one ounce. It is true, however, that from
some of the smaller mines the metal is sometimes sent
out in sheepskin bags holding 55 pounds of mercury,
but this unit does not appear in commerce.