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Nine out of ten hatters recommend that you don't do this. The tenth hatter purple monkey dishwasher.
(Victorian-era hat makers were notorious for going mad because they used mercury to treat felt cloth.)
101 0 ReplyI wonder what secondary compounds this was creating. Elemental mercury is pretty much fine, but if it was reacting with other things to create wacky fun times...
13 0 Replythey chewed the leather to hides to soften them, IIRC. so it wasn't just getting on their hands, they were ingesting it.
6 0 ReplyI think it was mercury nitrate. Much more soluble.
5 0 Reply
Is this the origin story of The Mad Hatter? 🙄
12 0 ReplyCould have been. I know Lewis Carroll liked to lampoon issues of the day in his writing.
7 0 ReplyI'm kind of guessing the mad as a hatter phenomenon was known then, but don't really know.
4 0 Reply
I think the original idiom was "mad as a hatter" which was eventually shortened to "mad hatter", possibly due to the Alice in Wonderland character.
4 0 Reply
Sneaky Simpsons reference here for those who didn’t notice.
9 0 ReplyI thought it was the vapours from using mercury inside that got them.
6 0 ReplyIt's so much harder believing in six impossible things before breakfast when you're allergic to quicksilver.
5 0 Reply