2 to 3 pounds of Lead (Babbitt).. Value?

So you mean to tell me that those tough cables holding up 1/2 a ton of steel 100 floors in the New York City Sky Line are supported with lead.

"Part of the process is holding the cables in place with lead."

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

The ends of the steel cables are looped around some part of the counterweights. They are bent a certain way and the lead is melted with a blowtorch to keep it all together. I don't know why it is done that way but I have seen it done a few times over the years.

 

Ah, so it's basically spot soldering lead. No wonder it comes in little cubes like that.

 

If I had to guess, they may do it that way to reduce friction between the steel cable and the thing it's tied to. Lead could hold the cable end steady, or it could lubricate it as it moves back and forth.

Also, as I understand it, there are purely mechanical braking mechanisms that cut in if all the cables supporting an elevator car fail.

 

The older soldering lead I used was 60% lead and 40% tin.

 

Ok guys.. These are the ends of the elevator cables they had to cut off yesterday. I just noticed they left them behind. You can see the material melted onto the ends..
Edit.. It's known as Babbitt

 

Probable spelter sockets...

 

Ok guys.. Update. The material is called..
Babbitt. It's made of tin and lead alloys!
The elevator mechanic just told me what it is.

Babbitt
Alloy
Description
Babbitt metal or bearing metal, is any of several alloys used for the bearing surface in a plain bearing. The original Babbitt alloy was invented in 1839 by Isaac Babbitt in Taunton, Massachusetts, United States. He disclosed one of his alloy recipes but kept others as trade secrets. Wikipedia

 

Oh, right! I was just reading about that a month or two ago, while going down a rabbit hole on low-melting alloys. Seems like a good example of "low-tech but bullet-proof", which seems like a fine match for "would drop people screaming to their deaths if it failed".

 

Here is a link to a pdf describing the process...(WARNING it's a pdf!)...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...f/EL_CAT.pdf&usg=AOvVaw02SK7DogSdXbIpxLfSeVIU

 

Thanks for the explination and photos! I still get a little bit of a pucker feeling when I ride the elevator up the empire state building or the way up to the top of th eiffel tower. Pucker, pucker pucker!

 

Your babbit would make good door stop or an extreme paper weight.
When I was younger, my brothers and self cast our own fishing sinkers and made ball shot for our black powder rifles & pistols. One time we cleaned up a widow lady's out-building for her & she let us have 2 five lb. plumber's calking lead ingots (her husband had been a plumber). That kept us supplied for a year.

 

Cool. Thanks for your response

 

It's also used for bearings. The place I used to work had a couple large, old ball mills to mix/grind powders. They used this stuff to support the shafts, which carried a lot of weight

https://autowise.com/babbitt-bearing/

 

Depends how many sinkers and what size you make for fishing.

 

Don't forget to say it's rare!

 

Babbits were mentioned in a catalog offering pamphlets and books dealing with independent, off-grid, and survivalist living... The steamship's motor would have a broken bearing leaving everyone stranded in the Sargasso Sea. One could make a serviceable bearing, enuff to get ya home, from low temp metals...
What was the name of that catalogue? Super Reading!

 

Op, my best advice is to keep it. Seriously, the most used tool in my garage are chunks of lead. You would be AMAZED how many times you need to hold things down to set glue, keep something from moving, etc. Nothing better than lead for density short of gold or platinum, and you do not care if someone swipes you lead!

Heck of a tool, I swear.

 

The Whole Earth Catalog?

 

That's good reading, too!