Lead Hardening?

[KCSO]

I was rereading Selous the other night and something caught myy eye...
"A 4 bore ball hardened with Zinc and Mercury driven by 15 to 20 drachms of course black powder". Now this fellow was using a smooth bore gun with these balls to kill game at over 100 yards so he couldn't be shooting shoddy bullets, yet he is hhardening them with zinc. I wonder how he got them to cast? Does the mercury make a difference? Oh for a chance to talk to him.

By the way after cassting bullets with deadly lead, zinc and mercury in them, over a camp fire and probably in his eatin' and cookin' gear he was killed at the age of 64 by a German bullet and till that time he was the healthiest man in the outfit. " He didn't appeart to be bothered by Malaria, Typhoid or Bilhazaria? like the younger men he led".

[Bent Ramrod]

Mercury can amalgamate with other metals (like silver in tooth fillings), so it could very well amalgamate with the zinc and carry it as a solution into the lead. You'd have to get the proportions right to keep the mixture from going soft or crumbly.

I think Ned Roberts (or maybe Sharpe) also mentioned hardening lead with mercury, but I don't recall that they mentioned adding zinc. As I recall, they poured an ounce or so of mercury into a 20-lb pot of molten lead and stirred it in.

Probably someone who was "concerned" with the problem of how to drive a 4-ounce ball through an elephant's head had enough on his plate to crowd out any worries about how he was dying by inches and parts-per-billion from a bunch of toxic heavy metals. Those were more robust times.

[Pepe Ray]

I don't know how he hardened his BALL Projectiles with Mercury and zinc.

In extolling the evils of zinc in BOOLET projectiles I find NO warnings for casting ROUND ball with zinc/ contaminants.
IMHO the most notable characteristic of zinc contamination is the ROUNDING of edges that were intended to be sharp. Therefore HARD-Round Ball Projectiles should pose no problems for that alloy.

The only thing I can say about Hg. is that it was used "in the old days" for the cleaning of heavily leaded bbls.

I hope someone can answer your question.--Felix?

[dwtim]

I suppose the mass of the projectile isn't a problem when one is using a 4-bore. I would want more mass with smaller projectiles, though, so antimony is a better choice in that respect.

[docone31]

I have had good corners with zinc, and really hot lead in the mold. Weight is an issue, so is the time to wait for the freeze on the casting.
I tried it, I did not like it.
With a small percentage of zinc, the came out lighter and real hard. Too hard, and small in diameter also.
Launching a zinc cannon ball in a smooth bore, now, that is something. I wonder how thick the patch was.

[windrider919]

I have a problem with the mercury mentioned above. When the book 'Day of the Jackel" came out the assasin put a drop of mercury into the hollow point of the bullets and then sealed with wax. I thought that was a neat trick so I tried it with some 158gr. HP .357 Mag cartridges. Imagine my supprise when the mercury algamated with the lead and became a soft mush. I tried it with some lead shot and a drop of mercury in a test tube and it did the same to that lead.

The da*m author lied in his story!!!!!! Its a myth and it just keeps getting promulgated like other urban legands. Just goes to prove the old saying, "Not everything you read is true."

The other problem with the idea of adding mercury to molten lead is that the mercury EVAPORATES at those temps and then you really have health problems breathing that. I guess it would look like it had alloyed with the lead but instead it just invisibally steams out. Lots of those old authors put stuff in their writing that is not true, especially the famous old 'Great Hunter' and 'Scout' types. They probably knew better but it enlivened the story and so sold better. And how would some city boy reading for excitement from his clerks job in New York in the 1930s know better anyway?

[runfiverun]

they used to use mercury to pull gold out of black sand [iron oxide]
but they did it by putting it in a hollow potato.
which amagalmated the gold and the mercury evaporated into the potato.
now lead being thatclose to gold the mercury would amalgomate it also
but would evaporate in heat...
however maybe that is the trick to keep zinc in solution at lower temp.
as i believe mercury is used to separate zinc from lead also.

[missionary5155]

Water dropping wheelweights and linetype is so easy why mess with something that is know to be poisonous ?