Mercury: Cinnabar Ore Retorted with Lime, the Littai Way (Thorpe, 1912)

Quicksilver from cinnabar by retorting: the ore is heated with lime in a closed cast-iron retort, air shut out. Lime takes the sulphur and the mercury boils off to be condensed. At Littai a 2 cwt charge of ore holding 2-3 % mercury took 6 hours, losing 5-6 % of the metal. Mercury vapour is poisonous, and retorting gives it off concentrated, worst when the retorts are emptied. Not given: how the retort is heated and at what temperature, and how the vapour is condensed. Source: E. Thorpe, Dictionary of Applied Chemistry vol. III (1912), Mercury, pp. 440 and 445, after Schnabel and Louis. Picture: Bionerd, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.