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OT Lead Pipe

Ivan Vegvary

Plastic
Joined
Sep 23, 2017
Joe Biden recently stated that we need to get rid of lead pipes. (Part of 4 Billion $ infrastructure bill).
WHOA, what gives. I thought we haven't had lead pipes since the Roman Empire days.
What part of this nation has pipes made of lead?
Educate me. (I'd love to get some and melt them down)
 
Copper pipe for domestic use wasn’t around until the 1930’s and wasn’t in common use until the 1960’s.
Go to any pre 1900 building and you will probably find lead pipe.
 
When they say "lead pipe" was it 100% pure lead, a lead alloy, or just leaded steel?

Pipe may have been hardened with a bit of antimony or tin, but basically 99.9% Pb. They just replaced the drain line and water lateral in a local building, the water line was indeed lead. Drain line a mix of various materials. Building was 1920s vintage. The city water plant is well aware that proper chemistry in the suppy keeps old lead lines in a pssivated state.

I dragged my wife over to show her the pieces they pulled out of the trench. This is what lead pipe looks like.
 
You must be very young. The dangers of lead pipe has been in the news for years. This is well documented.
 
I've owned and worked on a lot of 1890's buildings in San Francisco. All had galvanized pipe.
My experience is from the 1950's. Pure lead pipe? Can I pick up a 4 foot length and bend it into a pretzel? Can't quite picture it. Came in 1/2" and 3/5" sizes?
Thanks.
 
I've owned and worked on a lot of 1890's buildings in San Francisco. All had galvanized pipe.
My experience is from the 1950's. Pure lead pipe? Can I pick up a 4 foot length and bend it into a pretzel? Can't quite picture it. Came in 1/2" and 3/5" sizes?
Thanks.

I can’t either. What I can see is a president who doesn’t quite even know where he is a a news media that doesn’t even know what lead is.

I’ve been in and worked in very many old buildings and only ever saw lead used in drains.
 
Used to think lead pipe's only use was for bad guys to hit someone in the back of the head with. Learned from the Flint Michigan fiasco that there were actually houses with this style plumbing and that people could safely drink from them if the proper chemistry was maintained in the water.
Living here, there were very few houses from that era and the few that were here probably did not have indoor plumbing.
Texas Ranger traveled 120 miles on foot without seeing a house. Print is too small to read. But the Ranger was attacked by Comanches near the area where Ulvalde is and walked the 120 miles to San Antonio without food or water, took him about 8 days.The man beside not having food or water had three arrow wounds. One in the temple, one in the stomach and another in the shoulder.


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I've owned and worked on a lot of 1890's buildings in San Francisco. All had galvanized pipe.
My experience is from the 1950's. Pure lead pipe? Can I pick up a 4 foot length and bend it into a pretzel? Can't quite picture it. Came in 1/2" and 3/5" sizes?
Thanks.

The lead was replaced at some point.
 
Used to think lead pipe's only use was for bad guys to hit someone in the back of the head with. Learned from the Flint Michigan fiasco that there were actually houses with this style plumbing and that people could safely drink from them if the proper chemistry was maintained in the water.
Living here, there were very few houses from that era and the few that were here probably did not have indoor plumbing.
Texas Ranger traveled 120 miles on foot without seeing a house. Print is too small to read. But the Ranger was attacked by Comanches near the area where Ulvalde is and walked the 120 miles to San Antonio without food or water, took him about 8 days.The man beside not having food or water had three arrow wounds. One in the temple, one in the stomach and another in the shoulder.


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Man, I lived in Texas for many years and heard many a tall Texas tale, but that's a real whopper. Texas Rangers are some tough characters, but I don't think even one of them could live more than 4 or 5 days without water in that piece of Texas, sorely wounded, to boot.
 
I’ve been in and worked in very many old buildings and only ever saw lead used in drains.

My place is turn of the century, the old water line was steel, maybe galvanized at one point, no longer in use, dug up most of it a few years back, rusted to hell, still have a section poking up thru basement floor, its now used as a support for the copper line. Pretty sure its original, but might have been replaced in the 40's renovation. The only lead I have found is on the drain lines, anchors for bolts in walls, and the line of spatter imbedded in concrete wall where the backplate was for the shooting range.
 
Galvanised pipe in 1890s buildings was commonplace here too. I'm quite sure it was put in at the time of building as it is often done in such a way that it couldn't be done like that after the building was finished.
I've only seen lead for drain service here...
 
Hey folks, the lead pipes were not in the house. They are the service lines to the house. The ID is over time, coated with reactants and inert. That is why everybody living in old homes didn’t all die. In flint Michigan they switched to their own water treatment from Detroit city water to save $$. Incompetence led to a ph imbalance which ate away the protective coating, exposing the lead and contaminating water to the individual houses.
 
It's nothing more than fear-mongering and, of course, an excuse to send money - yours and mine - to all sorts of evil places and evil people.

The entire environmental tack is an embarrassment. To see grown-ass adults cowering in fear and bleating like lost sheep is just another sign of the times. We live in a very clean country. The idea that we must reach some sort of Nirvana where there is no pollution or waste is the stuff of sci-fi movies and bed wetters.

It's also worth noting that more lead pipes still in use are for drains, not feeds. And most of them have been there so long they are long since coated internally with a layer of crud that precludes any lead from going anywhere.

I heard a nasty rumor the other day...someone said lead comes from the Earth. That's right - someone said it is not a man-made substance but actually exists naturally in the very dirt on which we stand. I can only wait until that sort of person is slaughtered for his lies. We must believe the science!
 
Old Joe and his Dem pals don't give a hang about lead pipes. They simply know that lead is used to make bullets. Hillary managed to abolish the lead smelting industry in this country. Now, all lead products must be imported.
 
I can’t either. What I can see is a president who doesn’t quite even know where he is a a news media that doesn’t even know what lead is.

I’ve been in and worked in very many old buildings and only ever saw lead used in drains.

So because you haven't seen it, it doesn't exist?

Lead supply lines from the public water main in the street to the house used to be common. You don't see them because they are buried. They don't get discovered or replaced until there is a problem.

Also, leaded solder for plumbing wasn't banned in the U.S. until 1986. So a house full of copper pipe can still be leaching lead into the water supply. I think this is the most common source for contaminated water nowadays.

So you may be seeing it and not knowing it... just like the news media.

The latin word for lead is Plumbum, which is where the word "plumbing" comes from, and the elemental symbol Pb.
 
I heard a nasty rumor the other day...someone said lead comes from the Earth. That's right - someone said it is not a man-made substance but actually exists naturally in the very dirt on which we stand. I can only wait until that sort of person is slaughtered for his lies. We must believe the science!

So if it is naturally occurring, its not toxic?
 








 
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