goldstar31
Well-Known Member
I was brought up on lead piping and chewing the heads off lead toy soldiers,
I'm 90+
So?
I'm 90+
So?
I think this is no longer a theory, but a fact. They did autopsies on the bodies of Franklin crewmen, (They found nearly all their graves) and I think they all had high levels of lead. (That was why they decided a piano was sacred, and physically moved it with them while they were slowly starving and dying of the cold. They were completely nuts by that time. )So what is alloyed with the tin these days to make pewter? Or is pewter effectively extinct?
There is a theory that lead had an effect on the crews of the Franklin expedition in the Arctic. The tin can had just been invented and many were taken as stores on the ships. There was apparently high levels of lead in the solder used to make the cans. Examination of tins discarded in rubbish heaps on the shore showed great gouts of solder sticking into the inside of the cans. It is thought that food stored for a year in these tins would have been contaminated with lead from the solder and this contributed to the strange decisions that seemed to be made by the leaders of the expedition.
Degassing tablets for aluminum can be purchased from Porter-Warner Industries, in Phoenix, Arizona. They can also supply Phos-Copper shot for degassing brass castings. They are the people I get all my foundry supplies from, and they are VERY nice to deal with, as I am a tiny one-man foundry (Just me and the cat) (Although the cat is just an idler and layabout!) but they treat me the same as they do the huge companies like Asarco, who have huge smelting plants in Arizona and buy their supplies by the ton. I buy a little box of de-gassing tablets at a time. I sent some to Felgebiel (over in the "Engines" section) and am waiting to hear if his castings improved. PW also supply me with my drums of casting sand, parting dust, etc. I could not recommend them more highly. I have no interest in them except as a very satisfied customer. I make trips once or twice a year from Tucson to Phoenix to pick up foundry supplies.I worked with (not for) several Aluminum Foundries and can add a few points to produce denser castings.
The "gas" you are getting rid of is Hydrogen. It has a huge affinity for Aluminum and other metals. .
Try to cover the crucible during and after melting to reduce exposure to Moist Air . Our castings could not be poured when high humidity existed as they were critical and needed high density. Also, you degass the melt immediately before pouring . If you degass and wait for a minute or two before pouring, it is too late.
A foundry man explained it to me this way
Humidity is a surplus of H2O ..
Oxygen has a huge affinity for hot metals ( think rusting after welding )
So when you melt metal ,the oxygen in moisture combines with the metal making dross and that frees the Hydrogen which exists in the metal as gas
The Flux you have in some melts is a barrier to moisture penetration
So Degass and skim dross and pour quickly
Rich
Tin is also quite costly. Its great for toy soldiers small statues but not so good for things that require high strength. Its only put on tin cans for corrosion resistance. On the issue of lead many old piping systems were made of lead as well as pitchers for storing water. When used with wine the acid of made it worse as the Romans found out.
Lead does not stunt growth. It interferes with cognitive ability. And the amount in the body is measured from hair and tissue samples. So in fact you could grow to be quite large and not have all the lights on as the saying goes. And anthropologist do check bone samples for various poisons and contaminates when they get the chance to determine what they may have died from. When you work with metals you find that lead, mercury and beryllium deserve their fair share of respect. Spent some time in Rome, Spain and Greece visiting many of the fine museums located in the region. And I enjoyed the many fine wines also.I never quite believe historians! OK, I live within a stone's throw of Hadrian's Wall and and I have for those who have never been near to a bit sea between Europ and Africa it is called the Medi-terre- ranean . In other words it is s I say between TWO lands. I spent my summers where the Romand recruite people to throw stones. The Baleares in Spanish and the Balearic Islands for those who have never been.
Again I've lived where Hannibal took his elephants and further South to where the Madonna is not claimed to be olive skinned as per the Vatican( who had 2 Popes running together) and all sorts of paintings of Jesus but in the South of France there is a Belief of a Black madonna so following it through logically the Messiah could have been rather coloured. I'm merely linking or unlinking the other accounts!
So the Romans were 'down there' there are Coliseums and images of crocodiles and palm trees and - chains arpund there necks. No one has said what the metal was but you cannot expected historians to- well you can't. But I have been the Roman aqueduct at Pont( Bridge) du Garde and instead of having a swim went up to where the water was brought down - for hundreds of miles- there was no metal because the channels and the 'lids' were stone slabs. If one paddles around the once Roman cities it is all stone. So do I drink wine? To the des[air of the medics and the acceptance of my children who were brought up on water and wine, the Romans who do necessarily come from Rome got their wine in barrels and certainly by ship in amphora which had nothing to do ti n or whatever. They were made out of clay. Contrary to what historians do, I put a mask and fins and a lead weight belt and did a 'first' on a Roman galley. The juryy is out vwhether it carried St Paul on his way to Rome between the Maltese and the Croations but there is a Roman Galley off the headland at Mjlet. I tried to loosen one to give to a lady who became my wife!
And if you follow Charlees Graves I Claudius- book oof TV film they all drank out of tin /lead mugs?
The wine was decanted and realising the time quaff a measure( well me), it never stays in the glass mugs tin cup whatever- very long or long enough to for the lead to do a fat lot of damage.
And then the citizens of Rome? Most of them were slaves-- and a few were Vestal Virgins but did they all have a pmetal mug? You know there is a limit to what little boys could mine tin and lead and copper which were the stapple exports of what became England. Let's get real and go hundreds of years later and dig out a British man o'war and you find that most of the drinking and eating stuff was wood.
Probably the most dangerous tging in Ancient Rome Rome was malaria from the undrained( then ) Pontine Marshes. That was 2000 years ago but in 1914/18 WW1 men were dying of malaria in nearby Salonica- which you probably never heard of and that goes for the history mob. My uncle got a ar Pension from it.
Incidentally, if lead stunted groth, i'm delighted because I stopped growing when I was over 6 feet.
So I hope that I haven't ruined- pre-conceived notions( Oops)
As well as every thing painted with lead based paint which included wooden toys, wooden cots and wooden play pens that we children would chew on.I was brought up on lead piping and chewing the heads off lead toy soldiers,
I'm 90+
So?
Well Yes but those years are 'When I was a cild, I spake as a child and so on.As well as every thing painted with lead based paint which included wooden toys, wooden cots and wooden play pens that we children would chew on.
l for one don't wish to take itWell Yes but those years are 'When I was a cild, I spake as a child and so on.
I don't honestly believe i the fullness of life that that lead had little to do with decreasing mortality.
I've sort of done it all and recalled quite clearly my maternal grandfather describing his exploits of actually boiling the lead which he had mined. There are people who come as day trippers, formulate opinions and pronounce to people who have never even been on a day trip, their accumulated authority- and had time to consume fish and cipps and mushy peas assaulted by with an overzealous amount of salt from a a battered aluminium salt sellar excesses mined salt from .
Saints Preserve us!
With one whole day, we snotty, pimply little urchins were given a lesson in chemistry - never to be repeated. I was 11 and we made inedible common salt. And that was it. The guy flew off to a bombing raid ion Germany and we were dirty little gutter snipes to do our best with a second hand WW2 chemistry set.
Somehow, I seem to recall that acetic acid necessary to be the acid to react with the lead is either wine vinegar or spirit vinegar and it reacts with lead and very locically of you are not fast drinker and leave your almost undrinkable vino collapso, it will yield a sort of sweet drink.
Lets be real, the rich of ancient Roman were stinking rich band consumed and drank from golden vessels- which took Aqua Regia` a mixure of Nitric and sulphuric acid to make much of an impression.
The second line i the sort of pecking order would be from silver. and way down this only second from the bottom from actually drinking out of 'lede' cups.
Frankly, I'm far too old to be take in- with third or worse hand evidence. hre may be something which I could have escaped my Rheumy eyes.
So comment, please
Norman
l for one don't wish to take it
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