Mercury silvering methods. The technique was also used in Asia, for example "tokin" plating in Edo-period Japan. Mercury silvering Mercury silvering or fire gilding is a silvering technique for applying a thin layer of precious metal such as silver or gold (mercury gilding) to a base metal object. The process was invented during the Middle Ages and is documented in Vannoccio Biringuccio's 1540 book "De la pirotechnia". An amalgam of mercury and the precious metal is prepared and applied to the object which is then heated, sometimes in oil, vaporizing most of the mercury. The technique is dangerous since mercury is highly
Mercury(I) chloride handled properly. The differences in experimental potentials vary little from literature values. Other electrodes can vary by 70 to 100 millivolts. Mercurous chloride decomposes into mercury(II) chloride and elemental mercury upon exposure to UV light. The formation of Hg can be used to calculate the number of photons in the light beam, by the technique of actinometry. By utilizing a light reaction in the presence of mercury(II) chloride and ammonium oxalate, mercury(I) chloride, ammonium chloride and carbon dioxide are produced. This particular reaction was discovered by J.M. Eder (hence the name Eder reaction) in 1880 and reinvestigated by W. E.