People of a certain age may remember Merthiolate and Mercurochrome in the household medicine chest. Whenever someone skinned a knee or scraped an elbow, one of these topical antiseptics was often ...

In actuality, this liquid is more often alcohol than mercury. Another advantage of alcohol is that the freezing temperature of mercury is around -38F, so a mercury thermometer is not useful in ...

The thermometer has a small bulb filled with either mercury (in older thermometers) or alcohol (in modern ones). When the temperature rises, the liquid expands and moves up the narrow tube.