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White lead
White lead is the basic lead carbonate 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2. It is a complex salt, containing both carbonate and hydroxide ions. White lead occurs naturally as a mineral, in which context it is known as hydrocerussite, a hydrate of cerussite. It was formerly used as an ingredient for lead paint and a cosmetic called Venetian ceruse, because of its opacity and the satiny smooth mixture it made with dryable oils. However, it tended to cause lead poisoning, and its use has been banned in most countries.
Basic lead carbonate is produced by treating lead acetate with carbon dioxide and air. In the laboratory procedure treats lead acetate with urea. It occurs naturally as the mineral cerussite. The compound has been characterized by X-ray crystallography, which confirms the formula. The structure is complicated, features two kinds of Pb(II) sites, those bonded to hydroxide and those bonded to carbonate and hydroxide.
White lead compounds known as lead soap were used as additive for lubricants for bearings and in machine shops. Lead soap was also used as an oil drying agent for paints made with drying oil or air drying paints made with alkyd resins. Lead is often used with cobalt driers. Lead free substitutes have been developed to replace this use of lead in paint.
A second basic lead carbonate is known with the formula 6Pb(CO3)·3Pb(OH)6·PbO.
What is commonly known today as the "Dutch method" for the preparation of white lead was described as early as Theophrastus of Eresos (ca. 300 BC), in his brief work on rocks or minerals, On Stones or History of Stones. His directions for the process were repeated throughout history by many authors of chemical and alchemical literature. The uses of cerussa were described as an external medication and pigment.
The Roman Emperor Elagabalus was said to have used white lead and Alkanet as eye makeup.
Clifford Dyer Holley quotes from Theophrastus' History of Stones as follows, in his book The Lead and Zinc Pigments.
Lead is placed in earthen vessels over sharp vinegar, and after it has acquired some thickness of a sort of rust, which it commonly does in about ten days, they open the vessels and scrape it off, as it were, in a sort of foulness; they then place the lead over vinegar again, repeating over and over again the same method of scraping it till it has wholly dissolved. What has been scraped off they then beat to powder and boil for a long time, and what at last subsides to the bottom of the vessel is ceruse.
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White lead
White lead is the basic lead carbonate 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2. It is a complex salt, containing both carbonate and hydroxide ions. White lead occurs naturally as a mineral, in which context it is known as hydrocerussite, a hydrate of cerussite. It was formerly used as an ingredient for lead paint and a cosmetic called Venetian ceruse, because of its opacity and the satiny smooth mixture it made with dryable oils. However, it tended to cause lead poisoning, and its use has been banned in most countries.
Basic lead carbonate is produced by treating lead acetate with carbon dioxide and air. In the laboratory procedure treats lead acetate with urea. It occurs naturally as the mineral cerussite. The compound has been characterized by X-ray crystallography, which confirms the formula. The structure is complicated, features two kinds of Pb(II) sites, those bonded to hydroxide and those bonded to carbonate and hydroxide.
White lead compounds known as lead soap were used as additive for lubricants for bearings and in machine shops. Lead soap was also used as an oil drying agent for paints made with drying oil or air drying paints made with alkyd resins. Lead is often used with cobalt driers. Lead free substitutes have been developed to replace this use of lead in paint.
A second basic lead carbonate is known with the formula 6Pb(CO3)·3Pb(OH)6·PbO.
What is commonly known today as the "Dutch method" for the preparation of white lead was described as early as Theophrastus of Eresos (ca. 300 BC), in his brief work on rocks or minerals, On Stones or History of Stones. His directions for the process were repeated throughout history by many authors of chemical and alchemical literature. The uses of cerussa were described as an external medication and pigment.
The Roman Emperor Elagabalus was said to have used white lead and Alkanet as eye makeup.
Clifford Dyer Holley quotes from Theophrastus' History of Stones as follows, in his book The Lead and Zinc Pigments.
Lead is placed in earthen vessels over sharp vinegar, and after it has acquired some thickness of a sort of rust, which it commonly does in about ten days, they open the vessels and scrape it off, as it were, in a sort of foulness; they then place the lead over vinegar again, repeating over and over again the same method of scraping it till it has wholly dissolved. What has been scraped off they then beat to powder and boil for a long time, and what at last subsides to the bottom of the vessel is ceruse.