Evil lead!

[sheriff john]

Lead shot's not as hard on chompers as is steel and bismuth. Just sayin'.How you gonna get a worm down to a catfish without lead ? I like lead. Lead is my friend. Long live lead and black powder !!

 

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

Rome was physically stretched too thin, full of corruption and infighting and could not hold off the vandals, visigoths, Muslims etc. That eroded the empire into dust. Several waves of plague and such also weakened it.

When Belesarius retook Rome after being in the hands of Ostrogoths for decades it was a shadow of its former self.

I've never read any reputable material that seriously considered lead as leading to its demise. I personally find the notion a bit ridiculous.

 

[Ponderosaman]

Rome was physically stretched too thin, full of corruption and infighting and could not hold off the vandals, visigoths, Muslims etc. That eroded the empire into dust. Several waves of plague and such also weakened it.

When Belesarius retook Rome after being in the hands of Ostrogoths for decades it was a shadow of its former self.

I've never read any reputable material that seriously considered lead as leading to its demise. I personally find the notion a bit ridiculous.

When you have things like malaria and smallpox and violence, lead seems like it would be way down on the list of problems.

 

[necchi]

Too bad they didn't have OSHA!

, Ya, but how else are ya gonna sweeten your wine?

 

[Cattywompuss]

Alright... a lot going on here. Firstly, "The Roman Empire" as it were, lasted from about 500BC give or take, to 1453 with the fall of Constantinople. Yeah, a mere 40 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. So as we gear up for our tricentennial in 50 years time let's remember our minute time in this world. Next let's all stop pretending there is this one thing called the Roman Empire and that we all know what brought that mythical monolithic idea of Rome down.

Lead is poisonous. This is a fact. It isn't a myth or an overblown conspiracy. But with every chemical substance, heavy metal, whatever, dose equals toxicity. That's the long and the short of it. No need for further explanation. Except that with heavy metals they don't always leave the body like organic compounds, thus toxicity accumulates over time.

 

[Cattywompuss]

Lead shot's not as hard on chompers as is steel and bismuth. Just sayin'.How you gonna get a worm down to a catfish without lead ? I like lead. Lead is my friend. Long live lead and black powder !!

I use tungsten weights for fishing. Nothing Carolina rigs like tungsten.

 

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

Alright... a lot going on here. Firstly, "The Roman Empire" as it were, lasted from about 500BC give or take, to 1453 with the fall of Constantinople. Yeah, a mere 40 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. So as we gear up for our tricentennial in 50 years time let's remember our minute time in this world. Next let's all stop pretending there is this one thing called the Roman Empire and that we all know what brought that mythical monolithic idea of Rome down.

Lead is poisonous. This is a fact. It isn't a myth or an overblown conspiracy. But with every chemical substance, heavy metal, whatever, dose equals toxicity. That's the long and the short of it. No need for further explanation. Except that with heavy metals they don't always leave the body like organic compounds, thus toxicity accumulates over time.

Not to be a nitpicker but the Roman empire only began in 27 BCE and lasted until 330 CE. Prior it was a Republic and after it was two separate governing empires. By 1453 it was hardly Roman at all, certainly no more Rome than Charlemagne's holy Roman empire.

The Mediterranean cultures and empires throughout history show us how ephemeral power is even where people can see no way it could fail.

I love history and have a particular interest in Carthage and the Punic wars, and the Gallic wars and Vercingetorix.

Anyway back to lead...

 

[Whitworth]

Boiling wine in lead pots to sweeten it doesn't seem like a good idea now but it was an accepted practice in Roman times. I'm sure this didn't help with stable behavior

 

[.36Rooster]

I read somewhere years ago that the Roman's used the white powder that accumulates on the lead as a sugar if I remember correctly. Of course, the post finished off with the statement "which is why we don't speak Latin today".

I learned in a chemistry class once that, not only are lead oxides very colorful and quite brilliant, but also have quite a sweet flavor...which explains two things...

1) the use of lead paint,
and 2) the reason why kids like to eat it...

And 3) well nevermind that...

 

[user 48702]

Lots of lead soldiers were molded over the years. Great thing about the lead Confederate Soldiers, you didn't have to paint them or touch them up.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Wasn’t lead used in dentistry?

 

[Britsmoothy]

Bodies are pretty good at isolating foreign objects - walling them off so they're separated. Even cancer gets encysted, and best left that way rather than a doc cutting into it which allows it to spread.

As far as the Roman Empire, I've heard its downfall was Christianity. Towards the end it was pretty degraded with things like watching guys dying fighting wild animals and each other in the Coliseum, orgies, and stuff like that. Then the Christians came along and said "Go ahead and kill me, this isn't my only life. I won't go along with your crummy games." (all references to past lives were edited out of the bible at some point - I don't recall when) It's pretty tough on soldiers murdering good, decent people who weren't even resisting. They had controlled by threat of death and when that was challenged, it collapsed. Of course, the empire was on its way down anyway but who knows how much longer it might have continued.

The Scots really freaked them out! Got their chap Hadrian to build a wall.
So anyone threatening you, wear a skirt, no underwear and act crazy!

 

[Britsmoothy]

Wasn’t lead used in dentistry?

A form of mercury filling is used today! But that's OK because it's not evil hunting or shooting!!

 

[Britsmoothy]

Lead is poisonous. This is a fact. It isn't a myth or an overblown conspiracy. But with every chemical substance, heavy metal, whatever, dose equals toxicity. That's the long and the short of it. No need for further explanation. Except that with heavy metals they don't always leave the body like organic compounds, thus toxicity accumulates over time.

So is benzene in gas . So is uranium, plutonium, we have lead in car batteries.
Radiographers use lead. Zinc is not a friendly metal but it is coated on steel everywhere.
Iron oxide is unhealthy, can cause cancer but no one gets in a flap about that.
It may just be me, but are not shooting and hunting folk an easy and soft target?

 

[tenngun]

The Scots really freaked them out! Got their chap Hadrian to build a wall.
So anyone threatening you, wear a skirt, no underwear and act crazy!

Isn’t no underwear under a skirt going commando?
I was thinking Scotts were still in Ireland then and it was them blue painted Mel Gibson types that made Hadrian build his wall
I can understand as I don’t ever want to see Gibson in a kilt again….with or without underwear

 

[Robby]

I used to cast lead soldiers when I was a kid, on the kitchen stove, a lot of soldiers, enough for a corps, hah
Been carrying a bunch of Russian, or maybe Chi-com, lead in my knee for over fifty years, and depending on who you ask, there is nothing wrong with me.
Robby

 

[Daveboone]

With the much shorter life expectancy of the times, especially among common laborers...Good chance many of the longer term affects werent as noticeable as they would be today. A lot of folks were considered in thier old age by the late thirties. Coal mining, mills, quarrying, lumbering....all took a very high toll on the workers.

 

[Bobby MacAlphin]

Lead is perfectly safe to handle but I would not recommend eating it. Minor exposure shouldn't be a problem in adults; children are a different story. Some plastics are much more toxic and are still used in food packaging! Politics and ignorance may be the end for us all.

I have been shooting since I was ten years old and shooting muzzleloaders almost 30 years now and I am 64 years old , I decided to get my lead levels tested recently and they were completely normal , just don't be breathing lead fumes when casting lead or breathing lead dust and wash your hands after handling ammo and I think we will all be fine !

 

[stank]

I believe some of the arctic explorations at the turn of the last century were doomed because of food stored in cans soldered with lead. The sailors were on ship so long eating lead contaminated food that they contracted lead poisoning and died. But that was an extended amount of time on a lead diet that did it.

 

[Nameless Hunter]

I believe some of the arctic explorations at the turn of the last century were doomed because of food stored in cans soldered with lead. The sailors were on ship so long eating lead contaminated food that they contracted lead poisoning and died. But that was an extended amount of time on a lead diet that did it.

One of the more famous being the Franklin Expedition in 1845.