A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Friday 29 November 2013

Research: Small Bar-Lead For Making Shot and Round Ball.

This research of mine is as usual ongoing, but this is what I have so far on this subject. It is undeniable that small bar lead was available in England and in the colonies. It was used in shot towers, it was for sale and trade. Small bar lead was undoubtedly carried in small quantities by woodsrunners and Indians, but I believe the major use of the ball mould carried in the shot pouch was for remoulding spent lead retrieved from shot game. 


18th Century Small Bar-Lead For Making Round Ball.
To write down all the processes of producing bar lead from lead ore would take up a lot of room here, so I will keep it brief. The lead ore is mined from the ground, it is sorted from dead rock, and the rock with Galena in it is then crushed using a flat headed hammer called a “Bucker”. This work was carried out by children 10 years of age, and some elderly adults.

A Bucker was used to crush the pure Galena to uniform pea sized chunks. Photograph © 2006 Carol Haynes. http://www.mylearning.org/lead-mining-in-the-yorkshire-dales/p-414/;

The ore being washed. By David Allan

Crushing the rock and sorting. By David Allan.
After the ore was sorted and crushed it went into a furnace, where the lead was melted out and run out of the furnace into lead ingot moulds or pig moulds. These varied in shape and size depending on the individual mine and the country that mine was in.
Large 18th century lead pig.

From here these lead pigs or ingots were taken by pony to a smelter for further refining. Sometimes the made product was silver and the lead was a secondary product. At the smelter the moulten lead was again poured into moulds of a particular size, and again depending on the smelter there were a variety of shapes and sizes.

Lead Processing at Leadhills Smelting by David Allan

Lead Processing at Leadhills Weighing the Lead Bars By David Allan.

Although I can find no information regarding the production of “small bar-lead”, I believe that it was probably made as part of the process at the smelter. The large ingots and pigs were then sold, some going overseas. These large lead pigs were used as ship’s ballast to save on shipping expenses. NOTE: The terms ingot and pig also referred to bars of lead regardless of size
Dutch East Indiaman Kennemerland wrecked at Stoura Stack December 1664. Carrying 100 lead pigs. http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/hmpa-outskerries.pdf
Small bar-lead was used in the 17th and 18th  and 19th century fur trade, it was also used by the military and on occasion issued to the soldiers.
, 30 bars of lead, 30 pounds of powder, 30 awls, 30 glasses, 30 tobacco boxes, 3 papersof beads, 44 pounds of red lead, 30 pair of hawks' bells, 6 drawing knives, 6 caps,
12 hoes: Do by these presents grant, bargain and sell, &c., all right, title and iinterest,
http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~rstephen/livingeaston/local_history/Penn/Penn_family_part_1.html
During the 1744 treaty conference, the British commissioners traded with the Iroquois goods they held to be worth 220 pounds sterling and 15 shillings, including 200 shirts, four duffle blankets, forty-seven guns, one pound of vermillion, 1000 flints, four dozen Jews Harps, 202 bars of lead, two quarters shot, and two half-barrels of gun powder.
Small Bar Lead--@ 18\3 --
Other equipment mentioned was ladles for transferring the smelted lead from the fore-hearth into the one "greate iron moulde" and the 12 "small mouldes".
Bar lead sizes and Images.
 On average, the ingots measure 27.0-28.1cm long and are 1.9-2.1cm wide maximum.
On average, the ingots measure 27.0-28.1cm long and are 1.9-2.1cm wide maximum.
19thc. http://odysseysvirtualmuseum.com/products/Lead-Ingot.html;
Lead Pigs 18th century.
Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Pigs of lead.;
17th century pigs of lead from shipwreck.
The Archaeology of Lead Mining. 18th century mining.
Lead mining in Cymru/Wales.
Lead sinkers made from bar lead.
PDF: Composite lead & iron round ball.
http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/media/735.pdf
Fort Edward and Roger’s Island sites information.
Dutch East Indiaman Kennemerland wrecked at Stoura Stack December 1664. Carrying 100 lead pigs.
"pigs of lead to make shot" A Journal Kept byCaptain John Narbrough, &c. John Narbrough.
http://www.rockvillepress.com/tierra/texts/NARBROUGH.HTM
Bar-lead and Galena owned by the author. Image copyright Keith H. Burgess.
Galena or lead ore. Image and copyright: Keith H. Burgess.

Author’s goose shot mould.

Author’s ball mould and copy of an original copper lead ladle.

Thursday 28 November 2013

1761 list of Indian Goods from the Sir William Johnson Papers (Northern).




In Public Record Office, C.). 5.61, London, England. Enclosed in a letter of Amherst to William Pitt, February 27,1761
p.334-335 Sir William Johnson Papers
A list of goods intended for Northern tribes.
A List of Such merchandise as is Usually sold to the Indians — the prices differ with the times –


Deep blue Strowds with a narrow white cord
Plain Blue Strowds
Black Strowds
Scarlet or Aurora Do
Garterings and bindings for strouds of different sorts
French blankets, or twilled lettered white blankets
Purple & white French Rateen for Stockings
English white blankets of 20-24-&30 to a piece with black or Deep blue stripes
Wals cottons, or Pennistons for stockings
Green Knapt Frize for Do: & also for Blankets
Red, Yellow, Green & blue halfthicks
Flowered serges, lively colours or gay
Calicoes, Claimancoes for gowns &ca
Ribbons of all sorts, especially deep red, yellow, blue & Green
Linnens & ready made Shirts of all Sizes
Light coloured & white threads
Needles sorted
Awl blades for making Indian Shoes
Scalping and Clasp knives
Vermillion and Verdigrease
Jews Harps small & large
Stone & plain rings
Hawks bells different Sizes
Small white Beeds & other coloured Do Small
Horn Combs different sizes
Brass wire different Sizes
Scizars & Razors
Looking Glasses….Different sorts
Brass & tinn Kettles large & Small
Women & Childrens Worsted & yarn hose with clocks
Roll of paper Tobacco. Also Leaf Do
Pipes long & Short
Red Leather Trunks in Nests
Black & white wampum in great demand
Silver works or toys, which the Indians wear of different kinds
Tomahawks or small hatchets well made
Also pipe Hatchets
Tobacco & Snuff boxes
Pewter Spoons
Gilt Gill Cups and half gill Do
Good Gunpowder, large grain
Flints
Small bar lead of 1-1/2 lb each
Goose, Duck & Pidgeon Shot
Light & Good Fowling pieces
Beaver & Fox Traps
Iron Spears or giggs for striking fish with & Beaver with
New England, or York rum in rumlets of Caggs of 12.10.8.9 & 4 Gallns each

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Archived. A Proud Day.


Web Archiving Section
09:04 (1 hour ago)
to me
Dear Keith

Firstly the utmost in apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

Thank you for granting the National Library of Australia a copyright licence to include your website in the PANDORA Archive. As agreed this licence permits the Library to copy your publication into the Archive and to retain that copy and provide online public access to it in perpetuity.

I am delighted to inform you that your publication is now publicly available in the PANDORA Archive at http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-136231

Access to your publication in the Archive is facilitated in two ways: via the Library’s online catalogue; and via subject and title lists maintained on the PANDORA home page http://pandora.nla.gov.au/index.html.
Should the location of the title change, or should you decide to cease publication, we would appreciate it if you would advise us so that we can ensure all relevant data is archived.

If you wish you may indicate your archived status by using a PANDORA logo button or by incorporating a PANDORA search box in your website. The details on how to access these are at: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/publishers.html#logo

I would welcome any comments you may have regarding the presentation of your publication in the archive and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.



Regards


Chris Turner

Web Archiving Section
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600

Monday 18 November 2013

Two Of My DVDs About To Be Deleted.

Just a Heads-Up that Trepstar are going to delet a couple of my DVDs due to lack of sales over the past 240 days. They are Muzle-loaders & More, & Off The Grid. If you intended to purchase one of these, now is the time to get it before it is deleted. A purchase will keep it running, & I could do this myself, but I make so little from these DVDs that it simply would not be worth my while.
Regards, Keith.
http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com.au/search?q=DVDs

Friday 1 November 2013

Found; Blackbeard's Ship.


Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 12.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 11.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 10.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 9.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 8.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 7.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 6.

Tales Of Green Valley Farm Episode 5.