• spittingimage@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Nine out of ten hatters recommend that you don’t do this. The tenth hatter purple monkey dishwasher.

    (Victorian-era hat makers were notorious for going mad because they used mercury to treat felt cloth.)

        • XTL@sopuli.xyz
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          8 months ago

          I’m kind of guessing the mad as a hatter phenomenon was known then, but don’t really know.

      • SPRUNT@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I think the original idiom was “mad as a hatter” which was eventually shortened to “mad hatter”, possibly due to the Alice in Wonderland character.

    • Troy@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      I wonder what secondary compounds this was creating. Elemental mercury is pretty much fine, but if it was reacting with other things to create wacky fun times…

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      It’s so much harder believing in six impossible things before breakfast when you’re allergic to quicksilver.