Saturn is the God of Lead. He is depicted as consuming his children. This is an apparent reference to the image of death and rebirth that during cupellation, the purification of silver from lead.
Sublime Lead: The Biography of a 5000 Year Toxic Love Affair
Why Lead?  How did we get where we are today?  Was this a case of chemical predestination?  Or is this a case of evil and ?mad scientists? and  a disconnect between science and society?  These questions have propelled the development of class: Lead and Humanity: An environmental case study of a 5000 year toxic marriage.  At every point the questions are asked: what was the current state of technological and chemical knowledge, what were the energy sources, and what were the societal driving forces?. 

by Alanah Fitch
All Materials are Copyrighted 2004

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Chapter 1: Setting the Stage Introduction pdf ;
Andrew Jackson; Part I: History, Art, and Technology of Lead Ores: Man Before Lead; Lead Before Man; Ore Formation; Plate Tectonics; Oxidation of Ores; Abundance and Isotope Ratios of Lead Ore Bodies; Part II: Atom Formation, Planetary Formation, and Ore Body Generation: Quantity; Planet Formation; Common Minerals; Dissolution and concentration; Sulfide Precipitation; Porous Matrix; Fingerprinting; ProblemsLecture Notes Geology/Isotopes

Chapter 2: The Introduction: Man Asks Lead Out (Mines and Mining) pdf
Part I: History, Art, and Technology of Ore Extraction and Processing: Found elements; Melting points; Coinage, Purifying the Elements (Cupellation); Historical descriptions of Cupellation; Fuel in General: Efficiency of Wood; Laurion, Rajasthan, Rio Tinto, England, Germany, Mexico, Bolivia and Peru; North America: Colonial; Galena, Tri-State; Leadville, Coeur d’Alene; Broken Hill, Australia. Part II: Iron and Mineral Solubility,Electrum and Amalgams, Archaeological Evidence, Dispersion, and Modern Metallurgy; Problems Lecture Notes: Mines and Mining

Chapter 3: Man Courts Lead: Metallurgy and Alloys pdf
Part I: History, Art, and Technology of Metallurgy; Lead as Sculpture and Plastic; Projectiles, Shot Towers, Lead Weights; Lead Plumbing; Birth, Life, and Death Under Metallic Lead; Leaded Bronzes; Mexico, Nigeria, China; Why is Lead added to some kinds of bronze?; Brass; Description and Chemistry of Niello; Purification of Gold from Silver using Niello; Inadvertent Alloys: Metal Contamination and Implications for Recycling; Part II: Underlying Chemistry of Lead Metals and Alloys; Control of Gases; Lower Energy Requirement; Control of Final Solid Phase Structure; Trapping the Desired Structure by Controlling the Rate of Cooling; Extra Lead Prevents Dendritic Growth; An Example of Alloy Phase Control: The Making of Mirrors; Problems. Lecture Notes: Metallurgy and Alloys

Chapter 4: The Wedding: Glasses and Glazes pdf

December 2008: This Chapter is being extensively revised particularly with respect to the history of tin enamel glazes which is inaccurate. Please check back for a revised version by June 2009. Lecture notes are more accurate.
Part I: Glasses and Glazes, History. Why Lead?; Desirable Properties of Leaded Glass; Ancient Leaded Glasses; Medieval and Modern glasses; Toxicity of Leaded Glasses; Stained Glass; Enamels; Diffusion of Glaze Technology; Chinese Lead Glaze: Early Historical Developments; Three-Color Glaze; Porcelain and Its Imitation: Lead/Tin Glaze; Spain and the Birth of Majolica; Lead Glazed Pottery in the U.S.; Lead Glazed Pottery in Mexico; Leaded Glaze Frits; Toxicity of Leaded Glazes; Part II, Why lead and Glass? Flux; Lead and flux; Lead and Ease of Handling; Lead and Opacifiers; Lead and Brilliance; Lead as Glass Solvent Enhancer; Modern Glasses; Chemistry of Lead Glass and Glaze Toxicity; Chemistry of Lead in Majolica: Surface Tension; Problems Lecture Notes 4A Glasses; Lecture Notes 4B Glazes

Chapter 5: Putting on the Ritz: Pigments
Part I: Pigments and Paints History; White; Leaded Paints and the Painter: Goya; The “Color” Black; The Color Yellow; Lead Tin I and II; Massicot; Chrome; Toxicity of Yellow Paints; Minium or Red Lead; Toxicity of Minium; Papermaking; Metal Point; Illuminated Manuscripts, Spitballs, Replacement Pigments. Other Uses of Lead in Paint: Drying Agent, Anticorrosion. Part II: Chemistry of Paint and Color. Perception of Color; White: Absence of Color; Making Ceruse; Color of Metals and Semiconductors; Black Galena; Charge Transfer Colors, Crystal Lattice Tuning of Color; Organic Replacements; Anticorrosion; Problems Lecture Notes: Pigments

Chapter 6: The First Honeymoon: Alchemy and Mineral Acids
Part I Alchemy: The Purity and Religious Significance of Gold; Two Types of Knowledge; Decoding the Chemistry in Alchemy; The Days of the Week as Early Electrochemical Knowledge; Green Lion = Amalgamation; Saturn and the child as Solvation, Liquification, and Purification (Killing the Sun); The Four Aristotelian Elements; Alchemical Theory of Metals; The Alchemical Sequence (Phase and Color Changes); Alchemical Theory Conclusion; Part II. Alchemical Entrepreneurs and the Problem of Intellectual Property Rights; Alchemists and Control of Information; Metal Assays and the History of Mineral Acids; Part III. Alchemy and Lead as Medicine; Proto-Medicine; Paracelsus and the Beginnings of Modern Western Medicine; Homeopathy; Modern Toxic Folk Medicine; Part IV Chemistry of Metal Colors and Mineral Acids; Problems Lecture Notes Alchemy and Folk Medicine

Chapter 7: The Second Honeymoon: Some Modern Uses of Lead
Part I: Modern Leaded Consumer Products. Pewter, Typecasting; Babbitt Metals and Lubricants; Solder, Tin Cans, Wine Capsules; Superman and Lead; Linoleum; Why Lead in Plastics?; Lead and the History of Fire Arms; Early History of Batteries; Lead Acid Batteries and Transportation; Why Lead in Gasoline: Replacements for Leaded Gasoline; Airborne Lead from Gasoline; Deposition to Ice Caps; Deposition to Lakes and Oceans; Deposition to Plants; Deposition to Soils; Part II Chemistry of Modern Lead Uses; Solder, Tin Can Rusting; Radiation Shields; Lead Acid Battery Technology; Combustion Engine Chemistry; Polymer Chemistry; Elementary Reactions in Gun Powder; Chemistry of Lead Azide; Part III Modern Industrial Uses of Lead; Catalyst for Methane Conversion; Lead Acetate Catalysts; Superconductors; Non-Linear Optical Materials; Quantum Dots; Problems Lecture Notes Modern Uses of Lead

Chapter 8: The Marriage Bed: The Physiological Relationship Between Lead and Humanity
Part I. Human Physiology. Organo-Lead Inhalation; Organo Lead Action on the Proton Pump; Lead Bullets Embedded; Inhalation of Particulate Lead; Lead Entry Through the Stomach; Fate After Ingestion: Blood; ALAD; Deposition to Hair; Deposition to Bones; Deposition to Placental Tissue; Deposition to Kidney; Renal Failure; The Kidney and Blood Volume; The Kidney and Gout; Gout and Bathing; Lead and the Brain; Calcium Implicated; Review of Lead Poisoning Symptoms; Calcium Functions; Lead as Calcium; Calcium Triggers in the Nervous System; Leadzyme; Synthetic Lead Fingers; Chelation Therapy; Part II Companion and Avian Species; Companion Animals; Livestock; Unusual Bird Poisoning, Wild Waterfowl; Raptors; Other; Part III Lead and Other Species (Plants); Lead in Soils; Natural Sources of Lead; Point Sources of Lead (Battery Recycling); Pigment Soil Lead; Fate of Lead in Soil; Uptake by Plants; Phytoremediation; Part IV Underlying Chemistry; Covalent Binding of Lead to Carbon; Chelation Therapy; Lone Pair effect; Soil Matrix; Localization in Soils; Mobility of Lead in Soils; Problems Lecture Notes Lead Toxicity

Chapter 9: Suspicions: Historical Lead Poisoning
Part I: Lead and the Romans; High Production of Lead; High Use of Lead; Honey; Sugar; Sapa; Lead Poisoning Symptoms Well Described in the Literature; Death of the Aristocracy (Infertility); The Roman Bone Record; Archaeological Bone Record for Romans; Part II Early Lead Warnings; Part III The Franklin Expedition; The Historical Setting; Historical Reconstruction of Events; Lead Stands Accused; Lead and Tin Cans; High levels of lead in Sailors; Lead did not predate the trip; Amount of Lead high enough to affect events; Objections to Lead as a Causative Factor; Part IV: Archaeological Bone Chemistry and Lead; Problems Lecture Notes Historical Lead Poisoning

Chapter 10: Accusations: Social Construction of Environmental Disease

I am also rewriting this chapter to better pull out the themes that are important and to better track the removal of lead from the major industries. Check for rewritten material June 2009. Lecture notes contain the relevant material but will be reorganized.
Part I Occupational Disease (Feminized Science); The Eight Hour Work Day; Alice Hamilton and Feminized Science; Painters’ Sickness vs. Lead Sickness; The Kehoe “Show Me” Rule; Part II Analytical Chemistry and “Background”; Chisholm and Analytical Chemistry; Patterson and Background Contamination; The First Lead Paint Laws; Lead Absorption vs Lead Poisoning; Part III The Birt of risk Assessment; Part IV Social Definition of Environmental Disease; Needleman; Predicitng the Effect of Regulation; Controlling the Face of the Debate; Management; Community Based Sampling (Democratized Science?); Remediation; Enforcement of Notification; The Predictable Lawsuits; A Case Example Coeur d’Alene; A Sad Ending for Dr. Chisholm; Environmental Racism; Part V: Risk Assessment of Lead in Dust and Soils Chemistry; correlation between soil/dust and blood lead; bioavailability of leaded dust and soil; Part VI Costs of Remediation; remediation and/or removal of contaminated soils; removal; barriers; soil washing; soil flushing; bioremediation; electroremediation; in-situ stabilization; leaded dust; Removal of lead from homes; removal to water; sewage; solid waste streams; landfilling; metals and waste incineration; metal emissions; reducing icinerator emissions; risk assessment of emissions; treatment of fly ash; Solidification and cementation; Problems Lecture Notes Politics of DeLeading Industry

Chapter 11: Finding A Lawyer: The Lead Industry of the United States Under Siege
Part I: National Lead’s Antecedents; Importing Our lead; The Lead Trust; Horizontal consolidation of White Lead Industry; Chicago and Small White Lead Producers; Escapees from National Lead; Philanthropy and Lead (Blatchford); Eagle-Picher; Carter White Lead; Part II; Interlude: Attempts to Fully Integrate the Lead Industries; Other Lead Consuming Industries; Lead Acid Batteries (Beginning); Transportation Franchises; The Electric Vehicle Company; How the Guggenheims Won; 1892-1907 (Close but no cigar); Electric Storage Battery Survives; Part III The National Lead Story; 1920-1965 Diversification; titanium dioxide; 1978-2002 (Divestment and Risk Management); NL Industries and Taracorp; GNB Batteries; The Dutch Boy Factory; Philadelphia and National Lead; Snowballing Litigation; NL Industries Today; Other Types of Litigation; Part IV The Rhode Island Lead Paint Nuisance Lawsuit of 2002. Lecture Notes: History of National Lead

Appendix: Many Useful Tables and Data about Lead

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Enter the Fall 2008 Honors 204 Science and Society Poster Session