Man Dies Trying to Extract Gold From Computer Parts
What was he thinking? Well, mercury chemically reacts with gold and causes it to separate, according to Durant/Bryan County Emergency Management Director James Dalton. Authorities believe that Winnett, along with his partner Melissa Lake, heated the mercury in an attempt to separate the gold and accidentally inhaled it.
Which should serve as a lesson to all you budding engineers: Learn your chemistry before taking apart your computer.
Atomically speaking, that is.
From Durant Democrat
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Donna @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:56PM
Another Darwin Award nominee.
MLB @ Apr 3rd 2008 5:42PM
SAY NO TO METH
Eddie @ Apr 3rd 2008 5:47PM
Sounds like a typical redneck.
Andrew @ Apr 3rd 2008 7:10PM
I think we should all give this guy a great big wround of aploase for so assusingly thing the herd
reaccard @ Apr 19th 2008 12:01PM
DRINK MUCH????????????
Richard Thousand @ Apr 3rd 2008 8:36PM
What the hell did that mean Andrew...damn, what happened to the education system in america.
Sonney @ Apr 19th 2008 12:00PM
Yeah line Andy up with FireFox and he'll be able to spell everywhere on the Net, lol.
Yael Dragwyla @ Apr 3rd 2008 8:47PM
Eddie -- "redneck" my eye. A real redneck would've had more sense. Sounds like a superannuated urban teenager to me.
Dan @ Apr 4th 2008 3:43AM
I think our friend Tony had too much time on his hands and it ended up being the death of him!
taciturnforsale @ Apr 4th 2008 6:02AM
uh doesn't it take a lot of computer parts to make the tiniest amount of gold. man what these commodity prices will make people do.
jason @ Apr 5th 2008 3:02PM
People in the third world do this regularly just to survive. That's where we send our electronic waste.
http://www.ban.org/
free software @ Apr 5th 2008 4:06PM
In many poorer countries, such as India, recovering precious metals by recycling old tech, is commonplace. This serves as a reminder to us about the dangers they put themselves through in order to make a living
www.fileprompt.com
Melissa @ Apr 5th 2008 8:19PM
Andrew, are you high? Your words make no sense!
baracuda @ Apr 5th 2008 8:41PM
Where or how does anyone get enough mercury to do this anyways?
Daniel Gaunt @ Apr 6th 2008 4:54AM
for the few micrograms of gold he'd have got it really isn't worth the time!
http://freeextras.blogspot.com/
http://lifeorsomethingnotquitelikeit.blogspot.com/
Wally @ Apr 6th 2008 5:03PM
There is a joke in there somewhere, I know their is.
Meanwhile check out redneck jokes
http://www.wallysjokemail.com/search/label/redneck%20jokes
Bear @ Apr 6th 2008 8:30PM
Richard Thousand--that is hilarious!
Andi Price @ Apr 6th 2008 10:19PM
OK, I'm pretty decent at reading between the lines but I need some help with this one...
I think we should all give this guy a great big wround of aploase for so assusingly thing the herd
...big round of applause for _____________ thinning the herd
Will someone fill in the blank for me, please?
duke @ Apr 6th 2008 10:51PM
Mercury killed many alchemists. Boiling mercury, and liquid even at room temperature generates a toxic concentration of vapor unless there is very good fume hoods (with filters to remove the Hg) to remove them. Many dental offices in the last century were contaminated by spilled mercury. I have some in tooth fillings.
Gold is used in few places in a computer in sufficient amounts to be worth small scale recovery. Many plug in parts have gold plated contacts, the thickness of a few millionths of an inch. Copper also dissolves in mercury as does silver.
As the first message states: Another Darwin award waits this one. The gene pool is slowly improving.
duke
toni @ Apr 7th 2008 1:21AM
i think that perhaps andrew meant "...a big round of applause for assuming things they heard..."
what do you folks think?