Do Not Get Singered!

as some people have paying up to $50,000 (£33,500), for old-fashioned sewing machines like the one above, "Why?" I hear you ask, well the Singer sewing machines are said to contain traces of red mercury, a substance that may not exist, but it is widely thought that it can be used to find treasure, ward off evil spirits or even make nuclear bombs, so what better reason to buy one? I first heard of the story from Reuters, but it was later picked up by the BBC it appears that in the Middle East someone started this rumour and it has spread with people losing money at each retelling of the story, Saudi police say they are investigating, which leads to the question what is red mercury? well It appears no one is 100% sure but theses are probables, the five main theories are: that red mercury is a reference to cinnabar, a naturally-occurring mercuric sulphide, the red pigment derived from cinnabar is known as vermilion, that it is a reference to the alpha crystalline form of mercury iodide, which changes to a yellow colour at very high temperatures, that it is simply referring to any mercury compound originating from the former Soviet Union, the 'red' tag would simply be a legacy of the Cold War era, that it is a ballotechnic mercury compound which just happens to be red in colour, ballotechnics are substances which react very energetically when subjected to shock compression at high pressure, they include mercury antimony oxide which, according to some reports, is a cherry red semi-liquid produced in Russian nuclear reactors, this theory contends that it is so explosive that a fusion reaction - a nuclear explosion - can be triggered even without fissionable material such as uranium, that it is a military codeword for a new nuclear material, probably manufactured in Russia, but what ever you do, do not buy a Singer for red mercury!