Heating lead???

[Marama T]

Bought sets of conductivity rods from one of the big providers. They're not connected to anything, so the first thing that will happen is the metals will all get mixed up. And one of the rods is LEAD, which we're not meant to give to lower school, and would it be a good idea to heat a toxic metal? Hah! Going to send them back and get a set of Westlab conductivity stars instead

[bigmack]

Marama
I had a bad experience with heat conductivity rings
viewtopic.php?p=46583#p46583

[bigmack]

As far as heating lead from a toxicity point of view , personally I don’t see the problem . Kids have been melting lead to make sinkers for centuries .As a TV technician , I had molten tin/lead solder in my face for 25 years ….. as did nearly everyone in the electronics industry .

However , it does melt really easy and I agree with you that having molten metal dripping and splashing in a classroom is a dumb idea .

[Lyn]

When I saw the heading "Heating lead" my first reaction was NO,no,no,no,no. Not for heating. Seriously don't even put them out for the senior classes. I do however have lead electrodes, some lead sheet (to make electrodes) and bottles of lead shot that nobody has ever asked for or used in the forty years I have been here. I'm contemplating disposing of the lead shot in the next chemical waste pickup. Unless of course someone out there in lab land can tell me how it could be used in science (please don't say heating it).

[mtg]

lead shot was used in triple arm balances to calibrate and lead is used in alloys, yr 11 metals.

[bigmack]

Lyn , only this year one of our teachers come up with an idea of having various density cans of coke so the kids can get an understanding of mass . The idea was to demonstrate that a can of coke would feel 2.5 times heavier on I think Jupiter. Just so happened that a coke can filled with lead shot ticked the box .( with the lid siliconed shut of course)

And like you , I had been wondering why we had so much of it in the Chem store .