Sheet Lead
One method of making sheet lead is to suffer the melted metal to run out of a box or vessel through a long horizontal slit, upon a table covered with sand, when the box is drawn over it, leaving the melted lead behind to congeal. These sheets may then be rolled to any desired thickness, and also made more uniform. A later improved method is to cast thick square blocks of lead, which are subsequently drawn into long sheets between two heavy rolls; the sheet in the meanwhile being supported upon a long table which travels on wooden rollers. Another method is to force the metal by hydraulic power through the annular space formed by an outer cylinder and central core. This makes lead-pipe, which may be slit lengthwise and opened out into sheets. The Chinese pour melted lead upon a paper-protected flagstone, and press it down into a sheet by applying another similarly prepared stone above. See LEAD.