What is 'black lead'?

[Darto]

http://www.hbcheritage.ca//hbcheritage/history/business/fur/standardtrade1733.asp


According to the chart 1 beaver pelt (Fort Albany, 1733) will buy 5 pounds of shot or one pound of black lead. What is this 'black lead' that is more expensive than shot and what was it used for?

Thanks.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Well black lead is often a term used for graphite, but I doubt that there would be a huge call for graphite at Ft. Albany in 1733. I am taking a huge guess, but I think they are using "black lead" to refer to Galena a lead ore which can be heated to extract the lead metal that one would use to make ammunition.

LD

 

[Tom Compton]

Was there a powder mill at or near the fort? If so, they could have been adding graphite to the powder. Just a thought.
TC

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Graphite. Silversmiths would make a lot of use out of it.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Interesting history. I had always thought galena was the moniker given to lead from the area near the town where much of it was mined. Not so, town was named for the mineral.

 

[coloradoclyde]

It's on a fur trade list so it would have been traded to the natives. or possibly trappers.

 

[LaBonte]

Not necessarily - several items show up on trade lists that were either intended for the company posts (despite the "rendezvous" by the mid-1830's there were over fifty trading posts in the northern and central Rockies) or for the company's backup equipment.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Not necessarily - several items show up on trade lists that were either intended for the company posts (despite the "rendezvous" by the mid-1830's there were over fifty trading posts in the northern and central Rockies) or for the company's backup equipment.

True enough....But it is a HBC list from 1733

 

[Dphar]

http://www.hbcheritage.ca//hbcheritage/history/business/fur/standardtrade1733.asp


According to the chart 1 beaver pelt (Fort Albany, 1733) will buy 5 pounds of shot or one pound of black lead. What is this 'black lead' that is more expensive than shot and what was it used for?

Thanks.

Graphite. What it was used for I do not know in this context. But that was the name for Graphite.

Dan

 

[Zonie]

Just a guess here, like the rest of the posts but IMO, the talk about "black lead" being graphite is based on the common wooden pencil's use of the word.

Used in the context of the Fort Albany 1733 records I am sure they weren't talking about pencils.

It's possible that 1 pound or larger lead ingots at the time were coated with oiled graphite to keep the lead from oxidizing and forming white crusty lead oxide.

A little graphite in the melted lead would just form a easily skimmed off layer when it was time to cast up a bunch of balls.

 

[Dphar]

Just a guess here, like the rest of the posts but IMO, the talk about "black lead" being graphite is based on the common wooden pencil's use of the word.

Used in the context of the Fort Albany 1733 records I am sure they weren't talking about pencils.

It's possible that 1 pound or larger lead ingots at the time were coated with oiled graphite to keep the lead from oxidizing and forming white crusty lead oxide.

A little graphite in the melted lead would just form a easily skimmed off layer when it was time to cast up a bunch of balls.

Graphite was called black lead long before it was used in pencils. For example the British military would not accept blackpowder coated with black lead. Graphite is a way to may cheap powder shiny. It also slightly increases the amount of fouling. The old test for the average person was to rub a little powder on the palm ones hand.
From Wikipedia:
"In the 4th millennium B.C., during the Neolithic Age in southeastern Europe, the Mariţa culture used graphite in a ceramic paint for decorating pottery.[22]

Some time before 1565 (some sources say as early as 1500), an enormous deposit of graphite was discovered on the approach to Grey Knotts from the hamlet of Seathwaite in Borrowdale parish, Cumbria, England, which the locals found very useful for marking sheep.[23][24] During the reign of Elizabeth I (1533”“1603), Borrowdale graphite was used as a refractory material to line moulds for cannonballs, resulting in rounder, smoother balls that could be fired farther, contributing to the strength of the English navy. This particular deposit of graphite was extremely pure and soft, and could easily be broken into sticks. Because of its military importance, this unique mine and its production were strictly controlled by the Crown.[25]
Other names

Historically, graphite was called black lead or plumbago.[6][26] Plumbago was commonly used in its massive mineral form. Both of these names arise from confusion with the similar-appearing lead ores, particularly galena. The Latin word for lead, plumbum, gave its name to the English term for this grey metallic-sheened mineral and even to the leadworts or plumbagos, plants with flowers that resemble this colour.

The term black lead usually refers to a powdered or processed graphite, matte black in color.

Abraham Gottlob Werner coined the name graphite ("writing stone") in 1789. He attempted to clear up the confusion between molybdena, plumbago and blacklead after Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1778 proved that there are at least three different minerals. Scheele's analysis showed that the chemical compounds molybdenum sulfide (molybdenite), lead(II) sulfide (galena) and graphite were three different soft black minerals.[27][28][29]"

I still use a spray form of graphite to coat the interior of moulds when casting bullets.
Black lead in the context here is "probably" a powder form getting this into a mold cavity? Or it might not have even been graphite at the time period according the the Wiki article. Unless we can find a list of 18th C uses for the stuff I have no idea what it was used for other than perhaps the making of ink. From Wiki on inks:
"The history of Chinese inks can be traced back to the 23rd century BC, with the utilization of natural plant (plant dyes), animal, and mineral inks based on such materials as graphite that were ground with water and applied with ink brushes."

The fact that Graphite could be mistaken for Galena Ore explains the "black lead" moniker.

Dan

 

[necchi]

I have no idea what it was used for other than perhaps the making of ink.I still use a spray form of graphite to coat the interior of moulds when casting bullets.
Black lead in the context here is "probably" a powder form getting this into a mold cavity?

Finally, or just for pigment. A nice dark black color that stays better then charcoal.
It's on the list for the same reason Vermilion is;
Color that people liked and payed for.
:idunno:

 

[coloradoclyde]

I'm voting for war paint. :grin:

 

[necchi]

Oh yeah, people, not only NA painted a lot of stuff.
We have here in Minn a Mississippi river tributary called the Blue Earth river, it's called so because of a clay deposit there that was harvested for decades,, it's gone,, they dug it all out way back in the early 1800's.
Minnesota is weird that way, the glaciers created some odd mineral deposits all over the place.

 

[LaBonte]

As others have noted perhaps as face paint (albeit charcoal was commomly used and when mixed with oil it stays pretty well.)
There was also a type of art work done during the period called Plumbago - not all goods sent to frontier posts were for trade - many were to supply the inhabitants.