Gallium melting spoons

[jpean85]

Gallium melting spoons melt at approx. 86F. Gallium is a non-toxic metal, so spoons made of gallium are great to pull a prank on someone! the spoons melt instantly in a cup of tea/coffee
available at www.disappearingspoons.com

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIbYiO5BRYk[/video]

[Travis]

Coooooool...

[Brad Henderson]

no - hot

[Jonathan Townsend]

that cup is full of very strong acid, right? ;)

[Robert Allen]

Our body internal temp is 98.6. I'll bet with a bit of friction you could do an awesome spoon bending.

[Doug McKenzie]

Gallium actually is toxic when ingested. It is considered a heavy metal and should be handled with caution and lots of hand washing.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Thanks for the clarification Doug. It's important to know that it is not safe to finish the coffee after the spoon disolves so you can end clean. No joking about sauna or cold beverages to decide which way to recover the materials. It's TOXIC. Please be careful when designing routines that use this stuff.

[jpean85]

I did some research myself, and gallium isn't toxic! it's even used in something called a gallium scan where gallium is injected in the bloodstream, and to make matters worse ( :P ) it functions as a antibacterial agent and it's even considered a nutrient (http://george-eby-research.com/html/gal.html) so.. I wonder where you get that information from?

[Ted M]

From the front page of that george-eby-research website:

Finally, after 30 years of research, George Eby completes the research showing that strong zinc lozenges are indeed the long awaited cure for the common cold. Read about it in this late 2009 article, the latest word on the cure for the common cold from the George Eby Research Institute.

To purchase Eby's ColdCure, follow this link.

You might want to do a little more research elsewhere...

[jpean85]

what is your point then? mine was that gallium is not toxic.

referring to the earlier post on the ill effects of gallium; it's funny to see that people who have a tiny bit of knowledge on a subject present themselves as experts. The 'knowledge' here is that any liquid metal is a very dangerous heavy metal (mercury).
gallium is not at all a heavy metal. use google!

but anywho! this is totally beyond the subject

[Bill Mullins]

A Materials Safety Data Sheet is required by the federal govt in many places where chemicals are handled or used. The MSDS for gallium is easily googled.

It says: "The toxicological properties of this material have not been fully investigated."

Which means that none of us are sure what its effects on the human body are.

I wouldn't handle it, or risk the possibility of someone drinking coffee with molten gallium in it. Certainly not for something as trivial as a magic effect.


Wood's Metal is an alloy with a similar melting point. It isn't altogether safe, either.

[John M. Dale]

Ok, I'm going to weigh in here. Being an Environmental Engineer, I have a bit of knowledge about heavy metals. Let's start with a definition:

"Heavy metals" are chemical elements with a specific gravity that is at least 5 times the specific gravity of water.

Gallium has a specific gravity of 6.095 (Water has a specific gravity of 1) so it is definitely a heavy metal.

There haven't been many studies of animal or human toxicity but here's a quote from an abstract titled "Gallium Safety in the Laboratory" by Mr. Lee C. Cadwallader of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory:

"Gallium toxicology was also researched. Gallium metal is insoluble in water; consequently gallium is not readily absorbed through the skin. Eye contact with, or inhalation of, gallium dust or powder may cause irritation. Subcutaneous implantation of gallium metal or alloy in guinea pigs caused necrosis in situ. Therefore, care should be exercised to avoid injecting gallium
through the skin (i.e., preclude puncture or incision wounds that leave gallium contamination in the wound)....Gallium does not pose any large toxicological hazard in use."

Keep in mind even the toxic heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium) are more of a chronic (long term) rather acute (immediate) issue. Causing brain damage or birth defects. Heavy metals tend to accumulate in the tissues and organs in the body and are excreted very slowly. (Gallium appears to have an affinity to the thyroid.)

Any liquid metal probably should NOT be ingested, regardless of toxicity, so I'd recommend not drinking it. Handling the spoon while solid shouldn't be much of and issue but I'd recommend that washing your hands after handling it in liquid form isn't a bad idea.

I wouldn't try this trick on a hot summer day back where I lived in Arkansas unless changing the spoon onto a puddle it the trick you're after.

Hope this helps.

JMD

P.S. I haven't looked at the george-eby-research website but I suspect that a gallium salt (gallium nitrate or gallium chloride, perhaps) was used in his "research" (The statement "strong zinc lozenges are indeed the long awaited cure for the common cold" causes me to question the validity of this research - but that's another issue.). There have been some studies looking at using these salts for cancer treatment that show they may inhibit tumor growth.

[Jonathan Townsend]

JMD, the reaction of that metal along with the acids in coffee/tea/stomach or even the lipids in milk got me wondering and so I put the general caution out about not trying to "end clean" in the spoon vanish trick- instead suggesting its use as the supposed proof that the glass contains the deadly acid- referencing a classic mentalism routine.

[Bill Palmer]

This is all a moot point. Gallium is much more expensive than anyone here is likely to pay for a brief venture into the realm of low-temperature alloys, especially considering that the ambient temperature of many of the cities in the South, i.e. Houston, Dallas, New Orleans is higher than the melting point of gallium.

There are other alloys that are far less expensive and that will melt at the temperature of hot coffee.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Bill, how do those other metals taste?

Imagine you're at your local diner and after annoying the server by tapping the spoon against the cup to get their attention you tell them you wanted the refil to get set up to do some magic, and ask them if they'd like to see a ... all the while the spoon you're dangling into the cup lowers in ... finally you let the last bit go and take a few sips of the coffee.

Now that is magic in-situ where the server can spend the rest of the day telling staff and customers about a guy who dropped a spoon into their cup of coffee and it really vanished. Total mystery for them to share. :)

[Bill Palmer]

I really don't know how any of them taste. I can state this categorically. Anyone who drank coffee after dissolving a low melting point metal in it would have to be completely insane, no matter what jpjean85 may say about it. I don't know his credentials. I do know what the MSDS says, and that's enough to convince me not to drink coffee that contains molten gallium, field's metal, wood's alloy, cerrosafe, cerrobend or any other allegedly non-toxic low melting point metal.

The total mystery would be why someone who is apparently somewhat intelligent would actually do something that stupid.