Making Sugar of Lead

ha thanks

Nile Red

Your voice is so soothing to listen to. I fell asleep dreaming about lead and listening to your voice

That's what I thought when I first read the story many, many years ago as a kid. It was one of the things that drew me to become interested in chemistry. I figured, maybe I can discover something like this and get rich. Didn't work out that way though. I do have one or two ideas in the field of biofuels that could potentially be patentable and lead to fortunes, but would require quite a bit of expensive research beforehand and I've got neither the money nor the connections needed. :(

Silviu T

Very interesting stuff!

Nile Red

Maybe he thought it was sugar? 21 g of sugar is about 5 teaspoons. Depending on hydration, I assume 21 g of lead acetate would be around 3 teaspoons. Which sounds like the amount you'd put in a large coffee.

Gabriel J.

I think it may be one of life's many mysteries, like "how did that cucumber get in the shower before you fell on it?" More seriously though if I do find out any more I'll let ya know!

The Gayest Person on Patreon

Might be an idea for a further project, figure out what the impurities are. Maybe it's silver. :) Silver is present in many lead ores so raw lead often contains it; if it's present in high enough concentrations it's extracted by cupellation but most lead ores today contain only small amounts of silver and cupellation is inefficient. A guy named Alexander Parkes in the mid-1850s figured out a way to extract silver from raw lead without having to oxidize all of the lead first - the Parkes process. He made a fortune out of it. Before publicizing and patenting the process he went around many parishes in England and, charitably, offered to replace for free the old church roof tiles made of old lead with shiny new roof tiles of new lead. Then extracted the silver from the old roof tiles and got rich. :)

Silviu T

ha sounds good. I have no idea how you accidentally do that. Maybe it was dissolved and he accidentally drank it? Or was it actually a solid?

Nile Red

very very good point. It didnt occur to me that it would be other metals for some reason

Nile Red

I think that the insoluble matter in the second attempt was impurities in the lead. Commercial lead often has various accidental impurities or alloying elements added to improve its mechanical or melting/casting properties (bismuth, antimony etc). Those wouldn't react under the conditions you have.

Silviu T

I was always curious about this little snippet until I read it was used as a medicine: "In 1787 painter Albert Christoph Dies swallowed, by accident, approximately 0.75 ounces (21 g) of lead acetate." Swallowed almost an ounce....by accident.. I still don't think that sufficiently explains it though haha. Another cool video my dude! I'll probably end up watching it on YouTube as well so I'll see you there :)

The Gayest Person on Patreon

The issue with lead and other heavy metals is that they tend to accumulate in your body, whereas cyanide is detoxified relatively quickly. A small amount is probably okay though. You just want to be careful. Even small amounts of lead can have an impact, even if it isn't noticeable.

Nile Red

Send some Cody's way! :p

LOL Cody, I literally wrote the other comment about licking those crystals because I thought you'd do it!

Hey if he can drink cyanide he can have some lead.

Honestly, probably not that bad. I would only do it once though.

Nile Red

Pretty cool. How poisonous would a lick of those crystals be? xD

ha i mean, I can send you some if you really want to. I definitely dont recommend it though, lol

Nile Red

Can I taste?

CodyDon Reeder