Where did all the lead come from?

[Kraschenbirn]

Discussing powder manufacturing during the civil war on another thread led my thought process to this question. Where did all of the lead come from during the civil war...

A substantial quantity came from Jo Davies County, IL. Jo Davies is the most northwestern county in the state with a total population today of under 24,000 and...guess what...the county seat is the city of Galena, the family home of Ulysses S. Grant. In my misspent youth, I spent many a weekend traipsing through the woodlands up there and can't even begin to recall all the closed-up diggings I ran across while hunting whitetail, fox, and coyote. French explorers in the 1690s reported lead being mined by the local tribes and, by the 1850s, there were at least two commercial operations working.

Bill

[uscra112]

The Spanish had lead mines in southeastern Missouri in the 1700s.

https://pages.wustl.edu/files/pages/...ning_in_mo.pdf

Says the largest concentration of galena in the world is there.

In the Wood River region of Idaho, lead mines were worked right alongside silver mines. Many locations there are still unbuildable because of lead residues. The ore was carried out in huge wagons hauled by team of as many as 40 mules. In Hailey ID they do a re-enactment every summer. Watching the teams negotiate a sharp turn has to be seen to be believed. The pass between the Wood River and the Salmon River is called Galena Summit.

[sharps4590]

I've always understood, as uscra mentioned, that the largest lead deposits in the world are about 50 miles east of me near Potosi and Viburnum, Missouri and, it has been mined since the early 1700's, at least. I want to remember the French were digging it from shallow depressions in the late 1600's, same as Krasch mentioned about NW Illinois. I do believe that it was first mined by the French as the Spanish did not come into possession of "Louisana Territory" until sometime in the mid-late 1700's.

The mining industry in SE Missouri was responsible for the founding of what used to be the "Rolla School of Mines". Later it became the U of Mo.-Rolla. Seems the powers that be can't leave well enough alone and now it is Missouri University of Science and Technology. Whatever it's called, it is one of the top engineering schools in the nation.

[fredj338]

Discussing powder manufacturing during the civil war on another thread led my thought process to this question. Where did all of the lead come from during the civil war?

Now, I know we have lead deposits in Illinois and also along the Mississippi River but the US wasn't industrialized that much at the time of the civil war to produce the quantities needed by both sides to accomodate the ammount of bullets fired and there wasn't any wheel weights. In fact, I'm kinda wondering what lead applications were in use in those days that required lead other than shooting.

One thing about lead, it's always here. It's mined, processed, used and remains with us. Maybe scattered in the ground but still with us.

I'm just wondering why us casters haven't been smart enough to figure out a source to insure a sure supply to our hobby without all the hoopjumps we go through to make boolits./beagle

Lead has been in use for 100s of years before the civil war. Romans made dishes & cups out of it. It was widely used in paints. So finding enough to make bullets, pretty simple by 1860.

[Ziggy]

Missouri S&T student here! Yes, it's a great school, but very difficult. It's pretty cool to see someone else knows about Missouri S&T and it's quality education.

[uscra112]

God grant that such fine tech schools don't get subsumed in the political correctness craze. They must keep turning out the engineers and journeymen who keep the national machinery running; from satellite communications to sewage treatment plants. You can easily see what happens without competent engineers in the collapse of the Venezuelan power and water utilities, not to mention their oil production and refineries. We don't get any adulation, or even acknowledgement for it, we just do the jobs we trained to do. When I told my engineer Dad that I was going to follow the track myself, he said "it's a fascinating profession, but you'll never have cocktail party conversation.". Looking back, I can fully appreciate how right he was.

[kevin c]

Like the senior non coms in the armed forces. The officers dream up the plans and give the orders. The sergeants make it happen. The politicos and the CEOs outside the military similarly get all the attention and credit for what the engineers actually have to figure out how to make happen.

[uscra112]

Great analogy!

[kevin c]

Problem:

Given one platoon, appropriate tools, a twenty foot pole and a coil of rope, what is the fastest way of constructing a flagpole?

Answer:

Lieutenant: "Sergeant, I need a flagpole right here and right now."

Sergeant: "Yes, sir!"

I've always admired engineers. I enjoyed the math, chemistry, and physics classes I took in high school and college, and have an interest in science and technology even now, but to know that stuff down to the last detail rather than just in the general sense I have, and to apply it to practical and literally critical problem solving on a daily basis really impresses me.

My college classmates in the engineering schools were viewed as slide rule (the TI "pocket" science calculators were just beginning to show up back then) carrying nerds, but, like you're saying, those nerds make the world go 'round.

[uscra112]

Ah, slide rules. In high school we carried them in leather scabbards on our belts, like gunfighters.

The slide rule enabled the aviation age. Even the Space Shuttle was designed largely using slide rules.

I'm certain I still have mine; an aluminum Keuffel & Esser, still in its' leather case.

One career trap in being an engineer - specialization. As one wry joke puts it - "Engineers tend to learn more and more about less and less, until they know absolutely everything about nothing". I managed to avoid this by being stuck (involuntarily) into management early on.

But we have our heroes. Mine is "Kelly" Johnson, who saved Lockheed's bacon in 1933, straight out of college, and went on to guide the development of the P-38, the F-80, the Constellation, the F-104, and eventually the legendary "Blackbird".

[lightman]

I remember as a kid growing up in Arkansas that someone found a few cannon balls in a field. Also remember stumbling on a CSA cemetary.

A good friend has a couple of cannon balls that either him or his dad found in their garden. They lived near the South side of Pine Bluff, Ar. About 40 blocks from the court house where some fighting took place. Another friend that metal detects as a hobby has found lots of round balls and minnie balls around where I live. Another detector that I know knows where there was a hospital site and has found crude instruments and some bullets with what looks like teeth marks on them. I don't want to even think about that! I have hiked the Boy Scout trails at Vicksburg, Shiloh and Pea Ridge and seen minnie balls laying in the bottoms of ditches and washouts.

And kind of off topic; I've found what looked like mushroomed small caliber bullets at a few of the sites where I find arrowheads. Research shows them to be the lead from lead headed nails used on tin roofs after the nail rusted away. Many of my head hunting sites had several generations of Indians and later on, settlers, chosen for the same reasons that the first Indians chose the spot. (high ground near a source of water)

[woodbutcher]

Most interesting thread.Thanks to all who have posted.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo