Chap. 9.] Solder—Leaden Roofs—Invention of Rolled Lead.

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coffins (observes Fosbroke) occur in the Anglo-Saxon era, not made ofplain lead, but folded in a very curious and handsome manner. For themode of making coffins and their singulär forms, consult L’Art du Plom-bier, Arts et Metieres, tome xiii, a Neuchatel , 1781. a

The art of Casting lead into sheets on beds of sand, as now practised byplumbers, is of immense antiquity. The terraces of Nebuchadnezzar ’shanging gardens were covered with sheets of lead soldered together, toretain moisture in the soil. The composition of ancient solder for lead,we ’know from Pliny , was the same as ours. It is uncertain whether theart of uniting lead by “ burning,” that is, by fusing two edges together(without solder) was known. Pliny says, “ two pieces of lead cannotpossibly be soldered without tin glass.” Either therefore the ancientshad not the art of “ burning” pieces of lead together, or Pliny was notaware of it.

Tablets of lead were anciently used to write on. Job alludes to them.Books composed of leaden leaves are figured by Montfaucon. To suchtablets, we presume, Pliny refers, when he speaks of lead “ driven withthe hammer into thin plates and leaves.”—(Nat. Hist, xxxiv, 17.)

The employment of sheet lead as a covering for roofs ascends to theearliest ages in the East. It is still extensively used there. Tavernier,in speaking of the mosques at Aleppo , says their domes were coveredwith lead, and so was the roof of the great hall of the Divan at Constanti-nople. He mentions an inn or caravansary, the roof of which was coveredwith the same metal. Henry Blount , who traveled in Egypt and Turkey in 1634, found the roofs of the mosques and seraglios at Adrianople coveredwith lead. Count Caylus mentions ancient sheet lead half a line thicktaken from the inner dome of the Pantheon. Gregory of Tours describesan old temple of the Gauls , which was extant in the- time of the EmperorValerian, and had a leaden roof. (Montfauc. Supp.) Paulinus built achurch at Catarick, Eng. which .was burnt by the Pagans ; he built anotherof wood, which was the mother church of British Christianity , “ and en-closed the whole building with a covering of lead.” The churches andcastles of Europe in the middle ages were almost uniformly covered withthis metal. In a Statute passed in the fourth year of Edward I. of Eng-land, (A. D. 1276,) to ascertain the value of real estate, commissionerswere appointed to visit “ castles, and also other buildings compassed aboutwith ditches [to determine] what the walls, buildings, timber, stone, lead,and other manner of covering is worth.”—(Statutes at large.)

Leaden geals on woolen cloth were used in Henry IV. ’s reign.

It is uncertain whether the ancients were acquainted with the processof forming lead into sheets by passing it between rollers. If they were,the art, like many others, became lost, and was not revived tili the 17thCentury. A close examination of specimens of ancient sheet lead mightdetermine the question.

Rolling or “ milling” of lead was invented by Mr. Thos. Haie, in 1670,about which time the first mill was erected at Deptford. The inventormet with violent Opposition from shipwrights, because the lead, from itssmooth surface, uniformity of thickness, and low price, began to be gene-rally adopted for sheathing vessels, in place of the old wooden and leathersheathing. And as it was used also for gutters and roofs of houses, “ the

a About twenty years ago iron coffins were introduced in England and secured bypatent; but they were not then by any means a new thing under the sun : for the Par-sees oflndiafor ages buried their dead in them. “ Ces idolatres adorent le feu commeune divinite, considerant le bois cotnme sa viande ; d’ou il vlent qu’ils ne mettent pasleurs morts dans les cercueils de bois, mais defer.” —(C. Antiquaire, iii. 846.)