Quicksilver, or mercury, is a white fluid metal, the heaviest except platina and gold; it readily combines with nearly all other metals, and is used in the manufacture of looking-glasses, barometers, thermometers, &c.; in some of the arts, and in the preparation of several powerful medicines.  It is found in California, Hungary, Sweden, Spain, China, and Peru.  The quicksilver mine of Guanca Velica, in Peru, is one hundred and seventy fathoms in circumference, and four hundred and eighty deep.  In this profound abyss are seen streets, squares, and a chapel, where religious worship is performed.  The quicksilver mines of Idria, a town of Lower Austria, have continually been wrought for more than 300 years.  The vapor which is continually arising from the mercury is very hurtful to the miners, who seldom survive many years.

     Abyss, a gulf, a depth without bottom.

In what state is Mercury usually found?

Either native, or in the form of ore; it is often found mixed with silver, but more frequently with sulphur in the form of sulphuret, which is decomposed by distillation.  Running mercury is found in globules, in America, and is collected from the clefts of the rocks.  Mercury has the appearance of melted silver; it is neither ductile nor malleable in this state; it is a substance so volatile, when heated, that it may be evaporated like water; it is always seen in a fluid state, even in temperate climates, as a very small portion of heat is sufficient to preserve its fluidity.  It is used to separate gold and silver from the foreign matter found with those metals.  Calomel, a valuable medicine, and vermilion, a color, are both preparations of mercury.

     Globules, small particles of matter having the form of a
     ball or sphere.

What is a Thermometer?

An instrument for measuring temperature.  It consists of a fine glass tube, terminated at one end in a bulb, usually filled with mercury, which expands or contracts according to the degree of heat or cold.  On the scale of the Fahrenheit thermometer, the freezing point of water is marked 32 deg. and the boiling point at 212 deg..  In both the Centigrade and the Reaumur scales the freezing point is at 0, and the boiling point at 100 deg. in the Centigrade and at 80 deg. in Reaumur’s.  The invention of this instrument dates from about the close of the sixteenth century; but it is not known by whom it was first brought into use.

     Terminated, finished, ended.

When and by whom were Watches and Clocks invented?

Watches were invented about the year 1500, but who was the inventor is disputed.  They were, however, of little value as time-keepers, before the application of the spiral spring as a regulator to the balance; the glory of this excellent invention lies between Dr. Hooke and M. Huygens; the English ascribing it to the former, the Dutch, French, &c., to the latter.  Some assert that pocket-watches were first made about 1477, at Nuremberg, in Germany.  The most ancient clock of which we possess any certain account, was made in 1634 by Henry de Wycke, a German artist; it was erected in a tower of the palace of Charles V., king of France.  The pendulum was applied by Huygens, in 1656.