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Maple Grove History Museum

9030 Forestview Lane N.

(South Driveway)

Maple Grove, MN  55369

763-494-5983

​​​​​​​Maple Grove Historical Preservation Society

Maple Grove, Hennepin County, Minnesota

When Mercury Wasn’t a Worry

by Roger McHugh

When mercury wasn’t a worry or danger enough to close a school on a small mercury spill and when mercury wasn’t a worry, it was used in dentistry, only to later have those fillings replaced.  It was used in electic lights which is now considered a hazard when discarding them.  It wasn’t  considered a danger when eating some kinds of fish.

Mercury was given out in a small quantity by a Dentist in S0uth Minneapolis to a friend of my wife so they could shine up a silver coin to impress others of their great find of a “new “ coin.

Mercury was used in gauges like thermometers, in vials as a measure in heating units and boilers.  I can remember when a jar of mercury was dropped on the sidewalk in 1945 in front of the Sheet Metal, Heating & Plumbing shop in Osseo.  This is where Hance Hardware used to be.  It  was quite a chore to see who could collect the most mercury as it had splattered in beads smaller than a pin head.  It did not mix or blend into the sand or dirt.  You needed to push one bead into the other and they would merge together.   We used a piece of paper and rolled the mercury on to it and then funneled it into a small jar in order to reclaim this treasure also called quicksilver.  It became priceless and a great trading item if you had some.  The ink well at in our school desk became a storage place. Being able to shine coins made one very popular for a few days.

Recently the Hennepin County recycling station asked people to turn in their old mercury thermometers for a free digital one – an effort to get mercury out of the home medicine cabinets.

One thing I’ve always wondered ------------How normal would I have been if I hadn’t been in direct contact with mercury?  “ Oh , well!”