You are on page 1of 53

Materials Selection in Mechanical

Design Ashby
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/materials-selection-in-mechanical-design-ashby/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Materials Engineering Science Processing and Design 4th


Edition Michael F. Ashby

https://textbookfull.com/product/materials-engineering-science-
processing-and-design-4th-edition-michael-f-ashby/

Materials engineering science processing and design


Fourth Edition Michael F. Ashby

https://textbookfull.com/product/materials-engineering-science-
processing-and-design-fourth-edition-michael-f-ashby/

Engineering Materials 1 5th Edition David R.H. Jones


And Michael F. Ashby

https://textbookfull.com/product/engineering-materials-1-5th-
edition-david-r-h-jones-and-michael-f-ashby/

Multi-criteria Decision Analysis for Supporting the


Selection of Engineering Materials in Product Design,
Second Edition Ali Jahan Ph.D.

https://textbookfull.com/product/multi-criteria-decision-
analysis-for-supporting-the-selection-of-engineering-materials-
in-product-design-second-edition-ali-jahan-ph-d/
Materials Selection for Hydrocarbon and Chemical Plants
First Edition Hansen

https://textbookfull.com/product/materials-selection-for-
hydrocarbon-and-chemical-plants-first-edition-hansen/

Robust Design of Microelectronics Assemblies Against


Mechanical Shock Temperature and Moisture Woodhead
Publishing Series in Electronic and Optical Materials
1st Edition Wong
https://textbookfull.com/product/robust-design-of-
microelectronics-assemblies-against-mechanical-shock-temperature-
and-moisture-woodhead-publishing-series-in-electronic-and-
optical-materials-1st-edition-wong/

Turbomachinery: Fundamentals, Selection and Preliminary


Design Marco Gambini

https://textbookfull.com/product/turbomachinery-fundamentals-
selection-and-preliminary-design-marco-gambini/

Applied Mechanical Design 1st Edition Ammar Grous

https://textbookfull.com/product/applied-mechanical-design-1st-
edition-ammar-grous/

Blake's Design of Mechanical Joints Second Edition


Huston

https://textbookfull.com/product/blakes-design-of-mechanical-
joints-second-edition-huston/
Materials Selection in
Mechanical Design

FIFTH EDITION

Michael F. Ashby
Table of Contents

Title page

Copyright

Preface
Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Introduction: Materials and Design


Abstract

1.1 Introduction and Synopsis

1.2 Materials in Design

1.3 The Design Process

1.4 Types of Design

1.5 Design Tools and Materials Data

1.6 Function, Material, Shape and Process

1.7 Case Study: Devices to Open Corked Bottles

1.8 Summary and Conclusions

1.9 Further Reading

1.10 Exercises

Chapter 2. Engineering Materials and Their Properties


Abstract

2.1 Introduction and Synopsis

2.2 The Families of Engineering Materials

2.3 Materials Information for Design

2.4 Material Properties and Their Units

2.5 Summary and Conclusions

2.6 Further Reading

2.7 Exercises

Chapter 3. Materials Property Charts


Abstract

3.1 Introduction and Synopsis

3.2 Exploring Material Properties

3.3 The Material Property Charts

3.4 Summary and Conclusions

3.5 Further Reading

3.6 Exercises

Chapter 4. Materials Selection – The Basics


Abstract

4.1 Introduction and Synopsis

4.2 The Selection Strategy

4.3 Attribute Limits and Material Indices

4.4 The Selection Procedure


4.5 Computer-Aided Selection

4.6 The Structural Index

4.7 Summary and Conclusions

4.8 Further Reading

4.9 Exercises

Chapter 5. Materials Selection – Case Studies


Abstract

5.1 Introduction and Synopsis

5.2 Materials for Oars

5.3 Mirrors for Large Telescopes

5.4 Materials for Table Legs

5.5 Cost: Structural Materials for Buildings

5.6 Materials for Flywheels

5.7 Materials for Springs

5.8 Elastic Hinges and Couplings

5.9 Materials for Seals

5.10 Deflection-Limited Design with Brittle Polymers

5.11 Safe Pressure Vessels

5.12 Stiff, High Damping Materials for Shaker Tables

5.13 Insulation for Short-Term Isothermal Containers

5.14 Energy-Efficient Kiln Walls

5.15 Materials for Passive Solar Heating

5.16 Materials to Minimize Thermal Distortion in Precision Devices


5.17 Materials for Heat Exchangers

5.18 Heat Sinks for Hot Microchips

5.19 Materials for Radomes

5.20 Summary and Conclusions

Chapter 6. Processes and Their Effect on Properties


Abstract

6.1 Introduction and Synopsis

6.2 Classifying Processes

6.3 The Processes: Shaping, Joining, Finishing

6.4 Process–Property Trajectories

6.5 Summary and Conclusions

6.6 Further Reading

6.7 Exercises

Chapter 7. Processes Selection and Cost


Abstract

7.1 Introduction and Synopsis

7.2 Process Selection: The Strategy

7.3 Implementing the Strategy: Selection Matrices

7.4 Limitations and Quality

7.5 Ranking: Process Cost

7.6 Computer-Aided Process Selection

7.7 Summary and Conclusions


7.8 Further reading

7.9 Exercises

Chapter 8. Multiple Constraints and Conflicting Objectives


Abstract

8.1 Introduction and Synopsis

8.2 Selection with Multiple Constraints

8.3 Conflicting Objectives

8.4 Summary and Conclusions

8.5 Further reading

8.6 Appendix: Weight Factors and Fuzzy Methods

8.7 Exercises

Chapter 9. Multiple Constraints and Conflicting Objectives – Case


Studies
Abstract

9.1 Introduction and Synopsis

9.2 Multiple Constraints: Light Pressure Vessels

9.3 Multiple Constraints: Con-Rods for High-Performance Engines

9.4 Multiple Constraints: Windings for High-Field Magnets

9.5 Conflicting Objectives: Table Legs Again

9.6 Conflicting Objectives: Wafer-Thin Casings for Must-Have Electronics

9.7 Conflicting Objectives: Cost-Effective Bumpers

9.8 Conflicting Objectives: Materials for a Disk-Brake Caliper


9.9 Summary and Conclusions

Chapter 10. Selection of Material and Shape


Abstract

10.1 Introduction and Synopsis

10.2 Shape Factors

10.3 Limits to Shape Efficiency

10.4 Exploring Material-Shape Combinations

10.5 Material Indices That Include Shape

10.6 Graphical Coselecting Using Indices

10.7 Architectured Materials: Microscopic Shape

10.8 Summary and Conclusions

10.9 Further Reading

10.10 Exercises

Chapter 11. Material and Shape: Case Studies


Abstract

11.1 Introduction and Synopsis

11.2 Spars for Human-Powered Planes

11.3 Forks for a Racing Bicycle

11.4 Floor Joists: Wood, Bamboo or Steel?

11.5 Table Legs Yet Again: Thin or Light?

11.6 Increasing the Stiffness of Steel Sheet

11.7 Shapes that Flex: Leaf and Strand Structures


11.8 Ultra-Efficient Springs

11.9 Summary and Conclusions

Chapter 12. Designing Hybrid Materials


Abstract

12.1 Introduction and Synopsis

12.2 Holes in Material–Property Space

12.3 Key Concepts for Hybrid Design

12.4 Composites

12.5 Cellular Structures: Foams and Lattices

12.6 Sandwich Structures and Multilayers

12.7 Segmented Structures

12.8 Summary and Conclusions

12.9 Further Reading

Hybrid Materials – General

12.10 Appendix: The Stiffness and Strength for Multilayers

12.11 Exercises

Chapter 13. Hybrids: Case Studies


Abstract

13.1 Introduction and Synopsis

13.2 Designing Metal Matrix Composites

13.3 Natural Fiber Composites

13.4 Materials for Long-Span Power Cables


13.5 Conducting Elastomers

13.6 Extreme Combinations of Thermal and Electrical Conduction

13.7 Refrigerator Walls

13.8 Materials for Microwave-Transparent Enclosures

13.9 Connectors that Don’t Relax Their Grip

13.10 Exploiting Anisotropy: Heat-Spreading Surfaces

13.11 The Mechanical Efficiency of Natural Materials

Further Reading: Natural Materials

Chapter 14. Materials and the Environment


Abstract

14.1 Introduction and Synopsis

14.2 The Material Life-Cycle

14.3 Material and Energy-Consuming Systems

14.4 The Eco-Attributes of Materials

14.5 Life-Cycle Assessment, Eco-Audits and Energy Fingerprints

14.6 Eco-Selection

14.7 Case Studies: Drink Containers and Crash Barriers

14.8 Summary and Conclusions

14.9 Further Reading

14.10 Exercises

Chapter 15. Materials and Industrial Design


Abstract
15.1 Introduction and Synopsis

15.2 The Requirements Pyramid

15.3 Product Character

15.4 Using Materials and Processes to Create Product Personality

15.5 Case Studies: Analysing Product Personality

15.6 Summary and Conclusions

15.7 Further Reading

15.8 Exercises

Chapter 16. Sustainable Response to Forces for Change


Abstract

16.1 Introduction and Synopsis

16.2 Market-Pull and Science-Push

16.3 Growing Population and Wealth, and Market Saturation

16.4 Product Liability and Service Provision

16.5 The Information Economy, Critical Materials and Circularity

16.6 Response to Forces for Change: Sustainable Development

16.7 Summary and Conclusions

16.8 Further Reading

Appendix A. Data for Engineering Materials


A.1 Ways of Checking and Estimating Data

Further Reading
Appendix B. Useful Solutions for Standard Problems
Introduction and Synopsis

B.1 Constitutive Equations for Mechanical Response

B.2 Moments of Sections

B.3 Elastic Bending of Beams

B.4 Failure of Beams and Panels

B.5 Buckling of Columns, Plates and Shells

B.6 Torsion of Shafts

B.7 Static and Spinning Disks

B.8 Contact Stresses

B.9 Estimates for Stress Concentrations

B.10 Sharp Cracks

B.11 Pressure Vessels

B.12 Vibrating Beams, Tubes and Disks

B.13 Creep and Creep Fracture

B.14 Flow of Heat and Matter

B.15 Solutions for Diffusion Equations

B.16 Thermal Field for Moving Heat Source

B.17 Further Reading

Appendix C. Material Indices


C.1 Introduction and Synopsis

C.2 Uses of Material Indices


Index
Copyright
Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United
Kingdom
50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States

Copyright © 2017, 2011, 2005, 1999, 1992 Michael F. Ashby. Published


by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

First Published by Pergamon Press 1992.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any


form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on
how to seek permission, further information about the Publisher’s
permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such
as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing
Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.

This book and the individual contributions contained in it are


protected under copyright by the Publisher (other than as may be
noted herein).

Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As
new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in
research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may
become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own
experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information,
methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such
information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety
and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a
professional responsibility.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors,
contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or
damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability,
negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any
methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material
herein.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data


A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data


A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of
Congress

ISBN: 978-0-08-100599-6

For Information on all Butterworth-Heinemann publications visit our


website at https://www.elsevier.com
Publisher: Todd Green
Acquisition Editor: Steve Merken
Editorial Project Manager: Peter Jardim
Production Project Manager: Kiruthika Govindaraju
Cover Designer: Matthew Limbert

Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India


Preface
Mike Ashby, Cambridge

Materials, of themselves, affect us little; it is the way we use them


which influences our lives.

Epictetus, AD 50–100, Discourses Book 2, Chapter 5.

Materials influenced lives 2000 years ago and continue to do so


today. In Epictetus’ day the number of engineering materials was
small, today it is vast, more than 150,000. The opportunities for
innovation that today’s materials offer are equally immense. But
advance is possible only if a procedure exists for making a rational
choice from this great menu, and – if they are to be used – a way of
identifying ways to shape, join and finish them. This book develops
a systematic procedure for selecting materials and processes, leading
to the subset that best matches the requirements of a design. It is
unique in the methods it develops and in the way the information it
contains is structured. The structure gives rapid access to data and
allows the user great freedom in exploring the potential of choice.
The approach lends itself to computer-aided design, guiding choice
without the need for arbitrary judgements.
The approach emphasizes design with materials rather than
materials ‘science’, although the underlying science is presented,
wherever possible, to help with the structuring of criteria for
selection. The first six chapters require little prior knowledge: a
grasp of materials and mechanics at the 1st-year level is enough. The
chapters dealing with multiobjective selection, coselection of
material and shape and the design of hybrid materials are a little
more advanced but can be omitted on a first reading. The subsequent
chapters on materials and the environment, material and industrial
design and sustainable development, topics of current relevance, are
introduced in ways that relate to the systematic methods developed
earlier in the book.
This book interfaces, so to speak, with a set of others, all of which
use the same underlying way of thinking. At the more elementary
level, the text ‘Materials, Engineering, Science, Processing and
Design’,1 introducing materials from an engineering perspective, is
aimed at 1st year undergraduates. At the more advanced levels, the
texts ‘Materials and the Environment’,2 ‘Materials and Sustainable
Development’3 and ‘Materials and Design’4 enlarge on the economic,
sustainability and industrial design aspects that appear in the last
three chapters of this book.
Beyond this, the book is intended as a reference text of lasting
value. The method, charts and tables of performance indices have
application in real problems of materials and process selection. The
tables of data and catalogue of ‘useful solutions’ (Appendices A and
B) are particularly helpful in modelling – an essential ingredient of
optimal design. The reader can use the book (and the software) at
increasing levels of sophistication as his or her experience grows,
starting with the material indices developed in the case studies of the
text, and graduating to the modelling of new design problems,
leading to new material indices and penalty functions, and new –
and perhaps novel – choices of material. This continuing education
aspect is helped by a list of references in a section titled Further
Reading at the end of each chapter, and by exercises covering all
aspects of the text.
How does the 5th edition differ from the 4th? The text and figures
have been extensively revised and bought up to date; the more
difficult concepts are explained with schematics and text that make
them easier to grasp, and there are more than twice as many
examples and exercises, now placed at the ends of the relevant
chapters. Material efficiency, criticality, circularity and sustainability
are introduced and Appendix A, material property data, is updated
using the most reliable available sources. The methods developed
here are mirrored in the CES EduPack5 Materials and Process
Selection software, which, if available, forms a helpful adjunct to the
text but is not necessary for its adoption.
Like any other book, the contents of this one are protected by
copyright. Generally, it is an infringement to copy and distribute
materials from a copyrighted source. But the best way to use the
charts that are a central feature of the book is to have a clean copy on
which students can draw, try out alternative selection criteria, write
comments, and so forth; and presenting the conclusion of a selection
exercise is often most easily done in the same way. Although the
book itself is copyrighted, the instructor or reader is authorized to
make unlimited copies of the charts and to reproduce these for
teaching purposes, provided a reference to their source is attached to
each.
June 2016
Acknowledgements
Many colleagues have been generous in discussion, criticism and
constructive suggestions. I particular wish to thank Professor Yves
Bréchet of the University of Grenoble; Professor Anthony Evans of
the University of California at Santa Barbara; Professor John
Hutchinson of Harvard University; Dr. David Cebon; Professor
Norman Fleck; Professor Ken Wallace; Dr. John Clarkson, Dr. Hugh
Shercliff, of the Engineering Department, Cambridge University; Dr.
Amal Esawi of the American University in Cairo, Egypt; Dr. Ulrike
Wegst of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth; Dr. Paul
Weaver of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at the
University of Bristol and Professor Michael Brown of the Cavendish
Laboratory, Cambridge, UK. Equally valuable has been the
contribution of my colleagues at Granta Design, Cambridge, who are
responsible for the development of the CES software that has been
used to make the make many of the charts that are a feature of this
book.
1
Ashby, M. Shercliff, H. and Cebon, D. (2014) 3rd edition, Materials: Engineering,
Science, Processing and Design, 2nd edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK.
ISBN-13: 978-0-08-097773-7, North American Edition: ISBN-13: 978-1-85617-743-6
2Ashby, M.F. (2013) ‘Materials and the Environment – eco-informed material
choice’ 2nd edition, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, UK. ISBN 978-0-12-385971-6
3Ashby M.F. Ferrer-Balas, D. and Segalas Coral, J. (2016) ‘Materials and
Sustainable Development’ Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd, Oxford. ISBN-10:
0081001762 ISBN-13: 978-0081001769
4Ashby, M.F. and Johnson K. (2014) ‘Materials and design – the art and science of
materials selection in product design’, 3rd edition, Butterworth Heinemann,
Oxford, UK. ISBN 978-0-08-098205-2
5
The CES EduPack materials and process selection platform, is a product of Granta
Design, www.grantadesign.com/education/
CHAPTER 1
Introduction

Materials and Design


Abstract
This book is about the role of materials in engineering design. The components that
make up a product have shape; they have mass; they carry loads; they conduct heat
and electricity; they are exposed to wear and to corrosive environments; they are
made of one or more materials; and they must be manufactured. Chapter 1
introduces the design process and the role of materials in it.

Keywords
Design process; function; shape; concept; embodiment; market need; product
specification
1.1 Introduction and Synopsis
‘Design’ is one of those words that can mean all things to all people. Every
manufactured thing, from the most lyrical of ladies’ hats to the greasiest of
gearboxes, qualifies, in some sense or other, as a design. It can mean yet
more. Nature, to some, is Divine Design; to others it is design by Natural
Selection. The reader will agree that it is necessary to narrow the field, at
least a little.
This book is about the role of materials in engineering design. The
components that make up a product have shape; they have mass; they
carry loads; they conduct heat and electricity; they are exposed to wear
and to corrosive environments; they are made of one or more materials;
and they must be manufactured. The book describes how these are related.
Materials have limited design since humans first made clothes, built
shelters and waged wars. Today the range of materials and processes to
shape manufactured items is expanding rapidly. This expansion creates
new opportunities but it also brings problems. We now use more materials
in greater quantities than ever before, and we use them in ways that – at
present – are wasteful. The book develops strategies for seizing the
opportunities and tackling the problems.
1.2 Materials in Design
The number of materials available to engineers is very great: 200,000 or
more. Although standardisation strives to reduce the number, the
continuing appearance of new materials with novel, exploitable, properties
expands the options further. How, then, do engineers choose, from this
vast menu, the material best suited to their purpose? Rely on experience?
That’s how it was done in the past, passing on this experience to
apprentices who, later in their lives, might themselves assume the role of
the in-house materials expert.
There is no question of the value of experience. But many things have
changed in the world of engineering, and all of them work against the
success of simple reliance on past practice. There is the drawn-out time
scale of apprentice-based learning. There is job mobility, meaning that the
expert who is here today may be gone tomorrow. And there is the rapid
evolution of materials information, already mentioned. A strategy relying
on experience is not in tune with the computer-based environment in
which design, today, takes place. We need a systematic procedure – one
with steps that can be taught quickly, is robust in the decisions it reaches,
allows for computer implementation, and is compatible with modern
design methods.
Design is the process of translating an idea into the detailed information
from which a product can be manufactured. Each of its stages requires
decisions about the materials of which the product is to be made and the
process for making it. Cost enters, both in the choice of material and in the
way the material is processed. Materials are derived from natural
resources – ores for metals, oil for polymers, minerals for ceramics and
glasses – and many of these resources are finite and all, in conversion to
materials, need energy. Materials efficiency has now become as important
as energy efficiency, with efforts increasingly directed towards a circular
materials economy, one that re-uses as much as possible, minimizing the
draw-down from the natural resource base. And it must be recognised that
good engineering design alone is not enough to sell products. In almost
everything from home appliances to automobiles and aircraft, the form,
texture, feel, colour, beauty and meaning of the product – the satisfaction it
gives the person who owns or uses it – are important. This aspect, known
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lead poisoning and
lead absorption
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Lead poisoning and lead absorption


The symptoms, pathology and prevention, with special
reference to their industrial origin, and an account of the
principal processes involving risk

Author: Kenneth Weldon Goadby


Sir Thomas Morison Legge

Release date: December 3, 2023 [eBook #72301]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Edward Arnold, 1912

Credits: Charlene Taylor, Harry Lamé and the Online Distributed


Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEAD POISONING


AND LEAD ABSORPTION ***
Please see the Transcriber’s Notes at
the end of this text.
New original cover art included with this
eBook is granted to the public domain.

LEAD POISONING AND LEAD

ABSORPTION

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL MONOGRAPHS


General Editors { Leonard Hill, M.B., F.R.S.
William Bulloch, M.D.
THE VOLUMES ALREADY PUBLISHED OR IN
P R E PA R AT I O N A R E :
THE MECHANICAL FACTORS OF DIGESTION. By
Walter B. Cannon, A.M., M.D., George Higginson Professor of
Physiology, Harvard University. [Ready.
SYPHILIS: FROM THE MODERN STANDPOINT. By
James Macintosh, M.D., Grocers’ Research Scholar; and Paul
Fildes, M.D., B.C., Assistant Bacteriologist to the London
Hospital. [Ready.
BLOOD-VESSEL SURGERY AND ITS APPLICATIONS.
By Charles Claude Guthrie, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of
Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Pittsburgh, etc.
CAISSON SICKNESS AND THE PHYSIOLOGY [Ready.
OF WORK in Compressed Air. By Leonard Hill, M.B., F.R.S.,
Lecturer on Physiology, London Hospital. [Ready.
LEAD POISONING AND LEAD ABSORPTION. By
Thomas Legge, M.D., D.P.H., H.M. Medical Inspector of
Factories, etc.; and Kenneth W. Goadby, D.P.H., Pathologist
and Lecturer on Bacteriology, National Dental Hospital.
THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION. By Major D.
McCay, M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O., M.R.C.P., I.M.S., Professor of
Physiology, Medical College, Calcutta, etc.
SHOCK: The Pathological Physiology of Some Modes
of Dying. By Yandell Henderson, Ph.D., Professor of
Physiology, Yale University.
THE CARRIER PROBLEM IN INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
By J. C. Ledingham, D.Sc., M.B., M.A., Chief Bacteriologist,
Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, London; and J. A.
Arkwright, M.A., M.D., M.R.C.P., Lister Institute of Preventive
Medicine, London.
DIABETES. By J. J. MacLeod, Professor of Physiology,
Western Reserve Medical College, Cleveland, U.S.A.
A Descriptive Circular of the Series will be sent free on
application to the Publishers:
LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD
New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL MONOGRAPHS
General Editors { Leonard Hill, M.B., F.R.S.
William Bulloch, M.D.

LEAD POISONING AND

LEAD ABSORPTION

THE

SYMPTOMS, PATHOLOGY AND PREVENTION,


WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THEIR

INDUSTRIAL ORIGIN AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE


PRINCIPAL PROCESSES INVOLVING RISK

BY

THOMAS M. LEGGE, M.D. Oxon., D.P.H. Cantab.


H.M. MEDICAL INSPECTOR OF FACTORIES; LECTURER ON FACTORY HYGIENE
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

AND

KENNETH W. GOADBY, M.R.C.S., D.P.H. Cantab.


PATHOLOGIST AND LECTURER ON BACTERIOLOGY, NATIONAL DENTAL HOSPITAL
APPOINTED SURGEON TO CERTAIN SMELTING AND WHITE
LEAD FACTORIES IN EAST LONDON
LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
NEW YORK: LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.

1912

[All rights reserved]


GENERAL EDITORS’ PREFACE
The Editors hope to issue in this series of International Medical
Monographs contributions to the domain of the Medical Sciences on
subjects of immediate interest, made by first-hand authorities who
have been engaged in extending the confines of knowledge.
Readers who seek to follow the rapid progress made in some new
phase of investigation will find therein accurate information acquired
from the consultation of the leading authorities of Europe and
America, and illuminated by the researches and considered opinions
of the authors.
Amidst the press and rush of modern research, and the multitude
of papers published in many tongues, it is necessary to find men of
proved merit and ripe experience, who will winnow the wheat from
the chaff, and give us the present knowledge of their own subjects in
a duly balanced, concise, and accurate form.
This volume deals with a subject of wide interest, for lead is dealt
with in so many important processes of manufacture—in the making
of white lead; pottery glazing; glass polishing; handling of printing
type; litho-making; house, coach, and motor painting; manufacture of
paints and colour; file-making; tinning of metals; harness-making;
manufacture of accumulators, etc.
The authors bring forward convincing evidence, experimental and
statistical, in favour of the causation of lead poisoning by the
inhalation of dust. This makes prevention a comparatively simple
matter, and the methods of prevention are effective, and will
contribute greatly to the health of the workers and the prevention of
phthisis, which is so prevalent among lead-workers. Exhaust fans
and hoods, or vacuum cleaners, for carrying away the dust formed in
the various processes—these are the simple means by which the
dust can be removed and the workers’ health assured.

LEONARD HILL.
WILLIAM BULLOCH.
September, 1912.
AUTHORS’ PREFACE
Progress in the knowledge of the use of lead, the pathology of
lead poisoning, and the means of preventing or mitigating the risk
from it, has been rapid of late years, and has led to much legislative
action in all civilized countries. The present is a fitting time, therefore,
to take stock of the general position. We have both, in different ways,
been occupied with the subject for several years past, the one
administratively, and the other experimentally, in addition to the
practical knowledge gained by examining weekly over two hundred
lead-workers.
The present treatise takes account mainly of our own persona
experience, and of work done in this country, especially by members
of the Factory Department of the Home Office, and certifying and
appointed surgeons carrying out periodical medical examinations in
lead factories. The book, however, has no official sanction.
We are familiar with the immense field of Continental literature
bearing on legislation against lead poisoning, but have considered
any detailed reference to this outside the scope of our book, except
in regard to the medical aspects of the disease.
Most of the preventive measures mentioned are enforced under
regulations or special rules applying to the various industries or
under powers conferred by the Factory and Workshops Act, 1901.
Occasionally, however, where, in the present state of knowledge,
particular processes are not amenable to the measures ordinarily
applied, we have suggested other possible lines on which the
dangers may be met. We have not reprinted these regulations and
special rules, as anyone consulting this book is sure to have access
to them in the various works published on the Factory Acts.
The practical value of the experimental inquiry described in
Chapter VI., and the light it seems to throw on much that has been
difficult to understand in the causation of lead poisoning, has led us
to give the results in detail.
One of us (K. W. G.) is responsible for Chapters I., III., and V. to
XI., and the other (T. M. L.) for Chapters II. and XII. to XVII.; but the
subject-matter in all (except Chapter VI., which is the work entirely of
K. W. G.) has been worked upon by both.
Our thanks are due to the Sturtevant Engineering Co., Ltd.,
London; Messrs. Davidson and Co., Ltd., Belfast; the Zephyr
Ventilating Co., Bristol; and Messrs. Enthoven and Sons, Ltd.,
Limehouse, for kindly supplying us with drawings and photographs.
September, 1912.
CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. Historical—Chemistry of Lead 1
II. Ætiology 7
III. Susceptibility and Immunity 27
IV. Statistics of Plumbism 44
V. Pathology 62
VI. Pathology—Continued 81
VII. Symptomatology and Diagnosis 110
VIII. Excretion of Lead 127
IX. The Nervous System 140
X. Chemical Investigations 165
XI. Treatment 184
XII. Preventive Measures against Lead Poisoning 199
XIII. Preventive Measures against Lead Poisoning
—Continued 221
XIV. Preventive Measures against Lead Poisoning
—Continued 230
XV. Description of Processes 242
XVI. Description of Processes—Continued 265
XVII. Description of Processes—Continued 288
Index 305
LIST OF PLATES

FACING
PAGE
Plate I. 92
Plate II. 93
Plate III. 95
Plate IV. 276
LEAD POISONING AND LEAD

ABSORPTION
CHAPTER I
HISTORICAL—CHEMISTRY OF LEAD
The use of lead for various industrial processes and for painting
was well known to the ancients. Pliny[1] speaks of white lead, and a
method of corroding lead in earthen pots with vinegar, sunk into a
heap of dung, as the means by which white lead was made for paint.
Agricola mentions three forms of lead—white lead, a compound
which was probably bismuth, and metallic lead itself. The alchemists
were acquainted with the metal under the name of “saturn,” the term
signifying the ease with which the nobler metals, silver and gold,
disappear when added to molten lead.
Colic caused by lead was also known in ancient times, and is
described by Pliny; many other writers refer to it, and Hippocrates
was apparently acquainted with lead colic. Not until Stockhusen[2],
however, in 1656, ascribed the colic of lead-miners and smelters to
the fumes given off from the molten liquid was the definite co-relation
between lead and so-called “metallic colic” properly understood, and
the symptoms directly traced to poisoning from the metal and its
compounds. Æthius, in the early part of the sixteenth century, gave a
description of a type of colic called “bellon,” frequently associated
with the drinking of certain wines. Tronchin[3], in 1757, discovered
that many of these wines were able to dissolve the glaze of the
earthenware vessels in which they were stored, the glaze being
compounded with litharge.
In our own country, John Hunter[4] describes the frequent
incidence of “dry bellyache” in the garrison of Jamaica, caused by
the consumption of rum which had become contaminated with lead.
Many other writers in ancient and historical books on medicine have
written on the causation of colic, palsy, and other symptoms,
following the ingestion of salts of lead; and as the compounds of
lead, mainly the acetate or sugar of lead, were freely used
medicinally, often in large doses, opportunities constantly occurred
for observing the symptoms produced in susceptible persons. It is
not to the present purpose to examine the historical side of the
question of lead poisoning, but those interested will find several
valuable references in Meillère’s work “Le Saturnisme”[5].
Lead was used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
particularly, and in the earlier part of the nineteenth, for its action
upon the blood. In view of experimental evidence of the action of
lead on the tissues, particularly the blood, this empirical use has
interest. Salts of lead were found to be hæmostatic, and were
therefore used for the treatment of ulcers because of the power,
notably of lead acetate, of coagulating albuminous tissue. It was also
used in the treatment of fevers, where again it is quite possible that
the administration of a lead salt, such as an acetate, produced
increase in the coagulability of the blood. At the same time spasms
of colic and other accidents followed its use. There is practically no
disease to which the human body is subject which was not treated
by lead in some form or another. Lead, with the addition of arsenic,
was given for malaria, while its use in phthisis was also common.
The present use of diachylon plaster is an instance of the continuous
use of a salt of lead medicinally, as also is the lotion of the British
Pharmacopœia containing opium and lead.

The Chemistry of Lead.

Physical Properties.—Lead belongs to the group of heavy


metals, and occupies a position between bismuth and thorium in the
list of the atomic weights, the atomic weight being 206·4, and density
11·85. It is blue-grey in colour, and its softness and facility to form a
mark upon paper are well known. Lead melts at a temperature of
325° C., and at this temperature a certain (if negligible) amount of
volatilization takes place, which vapour becomes reprecipitated in
the form of an oxide. Use is made of the volatility of the metal at the
higher temperatures, 550° C. and upwards, in the oxidation of lead
from a mixture of lead, silver, and gold; the oxide of lead, or litharge,
is partially collected and absorbed by the crucible, but the greater
part is mainly removed from the surface of the liquid metal as it is
formed, while the richer metal is left in the crucible.
Chemically speaking lead is a tetrad, and forms a number of
organic derivatives, especially through the intervention of a particular
oxide, minium. Lead forms metallic alkalies and alkaline earths,
resembling silver in this direction, and also metallic compounds with
zinc and copper; in this point it is very similar to silver. Small
quantities of lead present in other metals—as, for instance, a small
trace in gold—alter its physical qualities to a great extent; whilst the
addition of minute traces of other metals to lead—as, for instance,
antimony—cause it to become hard, a fact made use of in the
manufacture of shot.
A number of oxides of the metal are known: two varieties of
protoxides (massicot and litharge), protoxide hydrate, and bioxide.
Sulphide, or galena, represents the chief form in which lead is found
in Nature, and from which the actual metal is produced by
metallurgical processes.
The salts of lead may be divided as follows:
1. The carbonates or hydrated carbonates employed in a large
number of industrial and other processes, which are the cause of
much lead poisoning.
2. The acetates, both normal and basic, which are particularly
concerned in the production of white lead—at any rate in the process
of converting metallic lead into the hydrated carbonate through the
medium of acetic acid and steam.
3. Chromate of lead, which is used as a pigment, and also in
dyeing yarns, etc.
4. The nitrates and chlorides; the chloride particularly is used as
an oxidizing agent (plumbing, soldering, tinning of metals).
5. The silicates, silico-borates, silico-fluoborates, which constitute
the many varieties of glass and crystals used in optical instruments,
and the various glazes and enamel colours used in the potteries.
There are a large number of other derivatives, but these are not of
special interest to the subject in hand.
The Action of Water upon Lead.—The action of water on lead
was known even to the ancients, Pliny and Galen having written on
the subject. At times, and under certain conditions, as much as 20
milligrammes per litre have been found, as in the Bacup epidemic,
and 14 milligrammes per litre in the epidemic at Claremont.
Bisserie[6] in 1900 made an exhaustive inquiry into the action of
water upon lead; he gives the following conclusions:
1. Water and saline solutions attack lead more or less readily
when it is in combination with another metal, such as solder, copper,
bronze, iron, or nickel, the result being a hydrated oxide.
2. The maximum effect is produced with water slightly acid and
with solutions of chlorides or nitrates. With these it is not necessary
to have other metals present, and if the water is thoroughly aerated
the pure metal is attacked.
3. Bicarbonates and carbonic acid exercise by themselves an
action on wet lead, but the carbonate of lead formed in the process
adheres firmly to the surface of the metal, and prevents any further
action.
4. Sulphates act in the same way, but in less degree.
5. This protective action is much diminished when the water is
even slightly charged with nitrates or organic material. Pouchet has
pointed out that lead branch-pipes fixed to iron water-pipes, thus
producing an “iron-lead couple,” set up definite electro-chemical
changes, and tend to increase the rate at which solution of lead in
the pipe water takes place.
Houston[7], in an extensive and very full report on the effect of
water upon lead, especially undertaken for the purpose of inquiry
into the contamination of supplies of drinking water by means of
lead, distinguishes two species of action—namely, plumbo-solvency,
which is brought about by the acidity of the water in contact with
lead; and a second kind of action, erosion, determined to some
extent by the dissolved air in the water. He came to the conclusion
that the plumbo-solvency and erosive action of water on metallic
lead differed considerably, and that the protective layer or plumbo-
protective substance did not always protect lead pipes from the
solvent action of water.
Chemical Characters of Lead Salts.—A short summary of the
chemistry of lead salts may not be out of place.
A soluble salt of lead, such as the acetate or nitrate, is precipitated
by (1) hydrogen sulphide or alkaline sulphide as a brown or black
precipitate, which is insoluble in ammonium sulphide. In dilute
solutions this sulphide is, however, appreciably soluble in mineral
acids, and may introduce errors in analysis, especially as the
solubility is distinctly increased by the presence of certain earthy
salts. The sulphide produced through the action of alkaline sulphide
on a soluble salt of lead is less soluble than is the corresponding
acid sulphide. Soluble salts of lead are at once precipitated by
albumin or peptone; the resulting precipitate has no stable
composition.
Under certain conditions definite colloidal precipitates are formed,
particularly in the presence of sulphide of copper or mercury. (2)
Sulphuric acid or soluble sulphates produce a precipitate of lead
sulphate insoluble in excess of the precipitating salt or sulphuric
acid, and only slightly soluble in alkaline solutions. This method is
the one generally adopted for gravimetric determination of a lead
salt. (3) Potassium chromate produces a precipitate of chromate of
lead very little soluble in acid, but soluble in caustic alkali. (4)
Potassium iodide produces a yellow lead iodide, soluble on heating,
and reprecipitating and crystallizing on cooling. (5) Alkaline chlorides
and hydrochloric acid produce needle-like crystals of lead chloride
soluble on heating, and reprecipitating on cooling. (6) Potassium
nitrate in conjunction with a copper salt (copper acetate) produces a
precipitate of a triple copper, lead, and potassium nitrate,
crystallizing in characteristic violet-black cubes. This reaction is one
made use of in the qualitative determination of small quantities of
lead in organic fluids (see p. 167).
All the precipitates of lead salts, with the exception of the sulphide,
are soluble in fixed alkalies, in ammonium acetate, ammonium
tartrate, and ammonium citrate. It is possible to determine the
presence of lead in a large volume without evaporating down the
whole bulk of fluid. By this means liquid containing lead is treated
with sulphide of copper, sulphide of mercury, or baryta-water.
Meillère states that he has detected the presence of as small a
quantity as 1 milligramme of lead in 1,000 c.c. of water in this
manner without evaporating the liquid. Where lead is in organic
combination, as is the case in the urine of persons suffering from
lead poisoning, it is not decomposed by hydrogen sulphide, and the

You might also like