Important: Safety Warning
This page describes trade processes that use dangerously toxic materials such as cyanide solutions, mercury amalgams, or strong acids. These processes require training, equipment, and precautions far beyond what the text describes.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
White Lead
The carbonate of lead. It is produced by several methods, and extensively employed as a paint. The Dutch method, usually considered a good one, is to place thin sheets of lead rolled into scrolls into earthen pots with weak vinegar or acetic acid. These are fitted with lead covers and closely packed, and buried in spent tan-bark. The acid corrodes the metal, forming a coating of acetate of lead. The carbonic acid set free by the decomposing vegetable matter displaces the acetic acid, combines with the lead, and the carbonate is formed. The acetic acid thus released attacks more metal, which is again carbonized, and thus, with occasional charges of vinegar, the operation is continued and the lead keeps constantly changing. See LEAD.