Broken alcohol thermometer?!
Question: Broken alcohol thermometer?
I had this thermometer for 10 years, now and it was a red alcohol solution thermometer (not mercury), but it had these very small, graphite-colored beads at the bottom of it. It broke just now and I cleaned it up. I hope those little beads are not made of some type of toxic chemical. Please help me identify them. I tried researching what they may be, but there were no answers.
Answers:
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
Do not worry. Those metal beads are placed inside the thermometer at the reservoir to absorb and maintain the temperature of the environment you are trying to measure. This slows the change of the temperature reading so you can have time to look at the thermometer and read it before it starts to cool off. Most likely the beads are just steel or lead.