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'lead' from glass? huh-what?

updated tue 24 oct 00

 

Philip Poburka on mon 23 oct 00


HUH-WHAT???

Lee, I am confused...

Could you or someone enlighten me on this?

HOW could one 'get' Lead-Poisoning from 'playing' this insturment?

IS there an 'actual', or apocryphal, association between this insturment and
the 'insanity' being attributed to the ('lead' in-the-glass being...absorbed
by the) musician?

This seems astounding, fantastic.

Also, 'Leaded' Glass usually describes the use of lead 'Came'( a sort of 'H'
channel), to join colored bits, shapes into a whole...as in 'leaded glass
windows', Lamp shades and the like.

Are we perhaps intending to say 'lead crystal'? Which I think I recall to
have been associated with most 'fine' Glass of all sorts...wine glasses,
goblets, chandelier pendants, mirrors,some early optics, etc etc.

And, are they not perhaps a sort of 'bowls' which rotate in this insturment
rather than 'globes'?...I haven't seen one in a while...run just barely 'in'
water I believe...played with the finger tips, as one can do with a wine
glass...etherial sounds...

Philip
in Las Vegas...where is is cool and drizzley to-night.

------Original Message------
From: Lee Jaffe
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Sent: October 22, 2000 8:40:25 PM GMT
Subject: Re: Online article on the U.S. Acion Plan on Lead in Ceramics


Leaded glass can be a problem if there is prolonged contact.
People who work in glass factories or glass craftspeople are
at risk. Musicians who play the armonica (I think that's the
name of the instrument Benj. Franklin invented using crystal
globes mounted on a spinning shaft) monitor the lead in their
systems very carefully. In the past musicians who played
this instrument were known for going insane and it is now
believed that they suffered from lead poisoning. -- Lee Jaffe

>Thanks Helen,
>I have another question regarding lead.
>Why haven't I seen similar warnings concerning
>leaded glass?
>My mother has a set of them and as I recall they
>were quite prized and expensive.
>Doesn't the lead leach out of that "fine" crystal glassware?
>Gayle Bair

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