Big Ol Hunk Of Lead...

[Swartzie]

Big 'Ol Hunk Of Lead...

Dug this at a cellar hole site which has produced stuff from the later 1800's to early 1900's. At first I thought it was a big fishing weight because of the hole. There is a good size creek nearby. But then I noticed the cut marks on it like someone had been cutting pieces off of it. So, I started thinking maybe lead for molding bullets. Any thoughts?

Thanks.
-Swartzie

 

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[vayank54]

Re: Big 'Ol Hunk Of Lead...

Hard to say what it was for. We find a lot of mangled up lead around house sites and lots of time never figure out what the people were doing with them. Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Re: Big 'Ol Hunk Of Lead...

Lead was used for everything at one time. I have found sheets of it in the middle of no where!
It's hard to tell.

Did you know Lead was one of the earliest metals discovered by the human race and was in use by 3000 B.C. The ancient Romans used lead for making water pipes and lining baths, and the plumber who joins and mends pipes takes his name from the Latin word plumbum, meaning lead. Plumbum is also the origin of the terms 'plumb bob' and 'plumb line,' used in surveying and also the chemical symbol for lead, Pb. In medieval times, lead came to be used for roofing, coffins, cisterns, tanks, and gutters, and for statues and ornaments. Another early use of lead was for the strips joining the pieces of colored glass in church windows.

 

[DCMatt]

Re: Big 'Ol Hunk Of Lead...

It is interesting to me that this piece is chopped and hacked and mangled, but the hole is perfectly drilled.

What is the mark punched in it? Have you weighed it? Maybe this was a home made weight for something very specific - like a clock weight...

DCMatt

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Re: Big 'Ol Hunk Of Lead...

Lead is handy stuff because of the low melting point. I cast bullets and my source is a salvage yard. Old homes had the plumbing sealed with lead at the joints in the sewage lines (those big, 'ol cast iron and occasionally ceramic pipes that went into the septic). The plumbers would stuff the joints with oakum and then pour melted lead over it to seal the joints.

I have a similar piece to what you have I use as a plumb-bob when setting fence posts. Tie it off at the top on a three foot string and you can tell when the post is straight and vertical.

 

[hunterV3]

Re: Big 'Ol Hunk Of Lead...

How much does it weigh? Maybe pieces were hacked off to achieve a certain weight. Just a guess.

 

[Deepdiger60]

Re: Big 'Ol Hunk Of Lead...

Lead was used to seal the old copper rain gutters on old houses out here its all over the place in lawns the houses go back to the 1700,s not everyone had gutters only the rich it also had many other uses because of its low melt temp. Dd60

 

[vayank54]

Re: Big 'Ol Hunk Of Lead...

Lead has been used for all kinds of stuff. There was an early 1800's house, near me, that had a windmill operated waterpump that would pump the water up the tower into a holding tank. There was a pipe running from the tank into the upstairs of the house. The scary thing is the holding tank in the tower was lined with lead. That is the only one like that I have ever seen.