Mercury silvering 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 toxic, especially in its vapor phase. Mercury silvering can be detected through a variety of
Mercury(II) hydroxide produced by evaporating mercury atoms at 50 °C into a gas consisting of neon, argon or deuterium (in separate experiments) plus 2 to 8% hydrogen and 0.2 to 2.0% oxygen. The mixture was then condensed at 5 kelvins onto a caesium iodide window, through which it could be irradiated. Mercury(II) hydroxide Mercury(II) hydroxide or mercury dihydroxide is an inorganic metal hydroxide with the chemical formula HgHO or more commonly written as Hg(OH). It is not possible to make the chemical by adding OH to Hg in aqueous solution, since this merely precipitates yellow solid HgO, although it is possible that