[sdiy] Mercury Vapor Rectifiers

[R. D. Davis]

Hopefully this isn't straying too far off-topic...

While planning on building a "new" tube circuit power supply, and
looking over some available spare parts for it, I'm becoming more and
more tempted to use a couple of 866 mercury vapor rectifiers, just for
the heck of it.  Before anyone asks what I'm planning to build that
requires enough power to justify the use of a couple of 866s, I have
to say "nothing at the present time," and therefore I think that I'm
safe from having to worry about flashbacks shorting the transformer
out.  I just want to see that cool purple/blue glow without resorting
to powering up an amplifier having a gassy 7868 (finally, 7868s are
once again being manufactured!) in it. :-)

Now for the question: I've read in a couple of places that mercury
vapor rectifiers emit mercury vapor into the air outside of the tubes,
but since these are sealed vacuum tubes, I don't see how this is
possible.  Is there something that I'm overlooking, or are, as I
strongly suspect, any writings mentioning that possibility written by
someone who's extremely mistaken about the dangers of these tubes?
(ok, if they're dropped, or something falls on them, I realize that
there will be a little problem of some mercury on the loose and will
have an excuse, a safety reason, for not bothering with using a vacuum
cleaner to keep my work area clean).

Robert

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