White lead is the chemical compound (2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2). It is a complex chemical compound, containing both a carbonate and a hydroxide portion. White lead occurs naturally as a mineral, in which context it is known as hydrocerussite, a hydrate of cerussite. It was formerly used as an ingredient for lead paint and a cosmetic called Venetian Ceruse, because its opaque quality and the satiny smooth mixture it made with driable oils it made a good pigment. However, it tended to cause lead poisoning, and its use has been banned in most countries.
White lead compounds were also used as lubricants for bearings and in machine shops, especially between work being turned in a lathe and a dead center.
Read more about White Lead: History, Paints, Other Synonyms (as An Art Pigment), See Also
Famous quotes containing the words white and/or lead:
“Almost like a god looking at her terribly out of the everlasting dark, she had felt the eyes of that horse; great glowing, fearsome eyes, arched with a question, and containing a white blade of light like a threat. What was his non-human question, and his uncanny threat? She didn’t know. He was some splendid demon, and she must worship him.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Events, actions arise, that must be sung, that will sing themselves. Who can doubt, that poetry will revive and lead in a new age, as the star in the constellation Harp, which now flames in our zenith, astronomers announce, shall one day be the pole- star for a thousand years?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)