>Trying to clean the scum off dirty mercury is 'fun' too.  Distilling
>it is simply insanity outside a fully equipped lab.  Disolving the
>impurities with nitric acid is less insane, but still dangerous.
>Best method I can see is dripping it slowly through a tiny hole
>until all the impurities are contained in the final drop.

I thought that folks using mercury to get gold out of minerals had this down 
to a fine art. You heat it so the mercury fumes off, and bubble the fumes 
through water to condense them. You end up with a bubble of mercury under 
the water.

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