Friday 23 April 2021

Toxic lump


I think that a lot of people have a tray somewhere, filled with many small curious objects which are better at gathering dust than all other parts of the house put together, with the possible exception of under the bed. This thing came from ours.

It was sold to me (yes, I actually bought it) as some sort of mineral or semi-precious stone, partly because of its weight. I recognised it for what it really is - the accumulation of different coloured paints from the floor of a Victorian workshop - and I still bought it.

What gives it its weight is all the lead in the paints. There is bound to be a lot of arsenic in it too. Arsenic Green is a delightful colour with unfortunate side-effects. Those Victorians really knew how to poison each other.  They used Red Lead to make the skins of oranges that little bit more orange, which can be a big problem if you make marmalade from them.

A while ago I was restoring some Georgian panels which had cavorting cherubs painted on them, and I needed to buy some Flake White lead oil paint. I naively went to the local art shop where I was offered a non-toxic substitute which just did not have the same quality as the real thing.

I called up a large and famous London outlet and was told that they had it in stock but could not sell it to me because I was not a professional. I told them that I was a professional and they asked me to prove it. Apparently you have to be on a register as a qualified historic conservator. I gave up and used the substitute.

Did you play with lead soldiers when you were a kid?

33 comments:

  1. I did not, but I do remember vividly taking the mercury from a broken thermometer to school to show the kids. We all passed it around and played with it, watching the shiny silver break up and then glom back together again.

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    1. I bought a bottle of mercury which I used to play with my running it between one hand and another. That might explain a few things about my personality.

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    2. I used to eat the pink ends of matches, liked the salty taste. It's a wonder we all made it through!

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    3. I think sulphur may be quite good for you in small doses, you could have set fire to your teeth though.

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  2. My mother-in-law when serving afternoon tea and home-made cakes used to say "Excuse fingers..." and then add "... said Major Armstrong as he handed the poisoned scone."

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    1. It's funny how these things stick in your memory.

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  3. The movement of the swirling fine lines in the lump is amazing. At a stone slab shop, I fell in love with a stone slab showing graceful lines resembling a stream bed. I imagined this as a custom tabletop. My son has a collection of British lead soldiers. All gifts from his father. It's hard to find lead paint and stain here too.

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    1. I have a friend who still collects lead soldiers.

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  4. That is an interesting lump. Swirling lines make it attractive. At a stone shop, I found a slab with long swirling lines resembling a stream bed. I imagined this as a tabletop for my dining room. My son has lead British soldiers. Gifts from his father. Lead paints and stains are hard to find. Many are banned. DEQE is hard at work.

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    1. Department of Environmental Quality Engineering (DEQE)

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  5. I recall we had lots of lead pipes at home. Then when they were gradually replaced they accumulated against a wall and then when everybody had eventually died we put them on the scrap trailer and went to scrapyard with them a few years ago.

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    1. All our plumbing was lead too. That's where the word 'plumbing' comes from. I don't think many plumbers would know how to use lead now.

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  6. What a unique object. You could fill an evening, trying to count the layers - like rings on a tree.

    I was still thinking about the very unusual car accident in Bath this morning and goggggelt it. At https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-56809145 you can find a short article about it. But still no reason is given for the accident. Most interesting thing about the article: it was actually a Porsche (that's going to be expensive) and it almost crashed into 'much sought after apartments' (that's going to be expensive, too). Also, one of the onlookers is wearing glaringly mismatched socks!

    Also curious at what kind of shop you found your special lump?!

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    1. I see what you mean about the socks. No shoes either. I bought the lump in a flea market.

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  7. My father used to let us play with mercury (under supervision) We used to put it in a tin tray and push it around or shake the tray, great fun.
    In the US there is an item used for jewelry called Fordite. Has many colours and swirls. As you may have guessed, it is from the floor of the old spraying shops.

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    1. Fordite! I am amazed by some people's entrepreneurial endeavours. I heard of an American marketing chocolate-covered pieces of melon rind once.

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  8. I remember playing with mercury as a child. I kept it in a little pill bottle and would put it in a saucer and tap it with my finger so it divided and joined again, absolutely fascinating! I don´t think my parents knew and I have no recollection of where I got the mercury from.

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    1. I bought my mercury from Boots the Chemist. It came in a little glass bottle with a tiny cork!

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  9. I even had a brother who filled his life with dangerous things just to prove they weren't. After he died, my brother in law and I jumped through a whole lot of hoops to dispose of his half a quart jar of mercury. It was our problem because he left it in our barn. I let my nephew deal with everything my brother left at his house.

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    1. All I knew of were guns, classic cars (and a Willys Jeep) and a daughter we knew nothing of.

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  10. ...and lick the tips of lead pencils. In the 1930's radium was all the rage and you could buy radium infused suppositories "great for piles". They were unaware of its dangerous radio active qualities then. I wonder how many who used them died with colon cancer?

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    1. Funnily enough, radio-active suppositories are used for prostate cancer now. Sometimes poison makes you better. Pencils have been graphite for a long time now. That's more harmful to breathe in.

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  11. Darling Tom,

    We have only had a short break and cannot believe how much ground you have covered in that time.

    So, we have now enjoyed several chemistry lessons, all complete with cautionary tales and feats of endeavour. There have been car crashes, bent railings, paint spillages, guns, tazers and other dangerous deeds. A fashion slot with sartorial advice has been thrown in for good measure and, now we have a toxic lump. The breadth and depth of your posts leaves us gasping for air.

    And, here we find ourselves immersed in grisly tales of poisonous materials and darkly dangerous deeds. Just the delightful pick-me up we could have wished for to brighten an otherwise chilly Saturday in the Motherland.

    What stories that toxic lump could tell. Of artists and their dark materials and, perhaps, even darker works. We love the idea of layers of history solidified for ever in our imaginations. A treasure indeed!

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    1. I am going to sleep tonight with the vision of the H@@s gasping for air at the mere thought of my toxic lump. It will be just like the old days of my youth.

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    2. To rephrase Truman Capote..." so excited we can hardly breathe..."

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  12. We used to play with mercury at work all the time ...... rolling it around the work surface and joining it up and throwing it on the floor and watching it split into a thousand pieces, then joining it up again ..... God knows what that did to me !!! William Morris contributed to arsenic poisoning used in his wallpapers, even though he was known for his industrial concerns. His ' have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful ' doesn't have the same ring to it. XXXX

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    1. My games with mercury ended when I dropped it on the carpet. Years after William Morris, Radox foot bath salts were radioactive.

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  13. What was the purpose of mercury? Why was it sold in druggist shops?

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    1. I have no idea why it was sold in Boots. Schools always had samples and there used to be a method of gilding metal using mercury containing gold, but it was banned quite a while ago.

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