Lead Facts
Lead Facts
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| Interesting Lead Facts: |
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| Lead has been in use by ancient civilizations for thousands of years, and is mentioned in the second book of the Old Testament. |
| Lead pipes on the baths have the official insignia of the Roman emperor and are still in use today. |
| Lead has a long history in alchemy, since many alchemists believed lead could be turned into gold. |
| Lead is one of the toxic elements whose poisonous properties were discovered even by early civilizations, and lead poisoning has been documented in writings from ancient Greek, Roman, and Chinese. |
| Lead acts as a neurotoxin, damaging the central nervous system. |
| It accumulates in the body, being stored in the skeletal system and soft tissues. |
| Lead is a fairly weak electrical conductor compared to other metals. |
| It is very dense and resistant to corrosion, which made it ideal for pipe making. |
| Lead has a propensity to form a layer of insoluble lead salts in the presence of carbonates or sulfates, which leads to its anti-corrosive property. |
| Adding trace amounts of other elements can have significant impact on lead's properties. |
| Alloying lead with copper or antimony makes lead both harder and more resistant to acid. |
| Small amounts of zinc or bismuth actually have a tremendous impact on lead's corrosive property, weakening it significantly. |
| There are only four naturally occurring isotopes of lead, and all lead is found exclusively in one of those forms. |
| All four of the isotopes can be considered to be radioactive isotopes, but the lowest half-life of any of the four is over one hundred quintillion years. |
| An additional thirty-four synthetic radioactive isotopes of lead are known. |
| Lead is most commonly found on Earth in ores of zinc, silver, or copper. |
| The mineral with the highest concentration of lead is galena, which contains 86% lead. |
| Global production of lead each year is around eight million tons, and demand is increasing. |
| More than half of the lead produced each year in the US is used by the automotive industry, primarily for the production of car batteries. |
| It also has uses in the construction industry, small firearms manufacturing, the production of sailboat ballasts, and other artistic purposes. |
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