Linotype haul?

[Miata Mike]

I picked up 50 pounds very reasonable and I an 99% sure it is Linotype ingots. Now if the alloy is right.....
Comes with a patent number of 2083913 which is INGOT FOR TYPESETTING MACHINE. Pretty grubby but are sectioned off in 2.5 pound segments.

He also had a lot of what he called "window lead". Soft as can be too. Would that be solder or just soft lead?

[Hickory]

Put it on a hard surface with about 1/3 of it hanging over the edge,
rap it hard with a hammer and see if it breaks off. If it shows crystallization there is a very good chance you have linotype.

[Dusty Bannister]

Interesting, not the usual form ingot, but could be what you want. The fractured area will be very fine grained almost like a powder in appearance, and will have a lot of sparkle facets from the antimony crystals. Makes a nice ring when struck as well. Is that number on the mold or added to the ingot, by hand stamping? Does the surface of the ingot that was not against the mold have a slightly raised ridge running the length?

[Boyscout]

That is how a linotype ingot was described to me by the gentleman who sells me mine. The ears are used to hang the the "pig" above the melting pot and it is lowered as the typsetters use up the molten lino.

[Dusty Bannister]

The ones I have seen and handled are about 22 pounds and not segmented. The similarity is the ears on the end. Otherwise, until the ingot is fractured, no one knows what the grain structure will look like or how the ingot sounds when struck.

[Cherokee]

Doesn't look like any Lino ingot I've ever seen, except the ears. Test it and see.

[fryboy]

so the patent is possibly for the ingot mold and subsequent ingots , kinda cool really ! it's assuredly some form of type metal and lino is a good possibility
the window lead is usually referred to as "came" , it it's self is usually pure lead it will have soldered joints but it will be a small percent , they have made some ( still do iirc ) from zinc , it's not as malleable as the lead is ( by way lolz ) so it's pretty easy to tell the difference , they used it when they needed to add some rigidity to a panel and sometimes borders

[GaryN]

The ones I have seen and handled are about 22 pounds and not segmented. The similarity is the ears on the end. Otherwise, until the ingot is fractured, no one knows what the grain structure will look like or how the ingot sounds when struck.

That's what the ones I have seen look like too. They were also pretty hard.

[Lloyd Smale]

being segmented i wonder if its that alloy printers used to replace the lost tin and antimony from oxidation.

[Miata Mike]

The patent number is part of the pig mold. The segments with the ears on it don't have a hard sound when I hit them on the floor or against each other, but the single segments sound "hard". Ends where segments broke off show some crystal. I will take a better look and maybe a picture after I wake up this afternoon (12 hour night shift). I have a half lino pig from a buddy of mine in the print business, and it is not segmented but same ears if I remember right.

We had a Linotype machine in high school, but I remember very little about the pigs other than they hung from a chain and were lowered somehow into the pot. It was 37 years and millions of brain cells ago.

They said there was some zinc window stuff too, but they culled it. Looks like I will stay away from that stuff just in case. ;)
That would be cool if the pigs were high tin but I have my doubts.

[Miata Mike]

I smacked some double segments in half by hand, it wasn't all that tough to do. Cracked very easy. single segments clinked together and only slightly dented each other. The pigs have a slightly layered look to them as it must have been done in stages in a smaller shop. Here is a picture or two after scrubbing them up with simple green.

[Miata Mike]

I mixed this stuff 50/50 with pure lead and got nothing but perfection out of my 4 banger Lyman 452460 mold. Frosty as can be until I dropped my Lee 20# pot down to 2 or 3. Never had to run so cool before. The pure linotype melted like butter and the pure lead seemed to take forever.

Might try cutting the mix a sliver more and see what happens. Hardball may be a tad harder than what I really need for .45acp. ;)