Hi, I am lead. Nobody knows who really discovered me, but they do know that I have been around since ancient times. Throughout history, the Romans used me to make pipes which would carry their water. I was the reason many Romans died from lead poisoning. My symbol is Pb which comes from my Latin name, plumbum. (“Facts About Lead”) On the periodic table I am in column 14 and row 6. My atomic number is 82. When I stepped on the scale the other day my atomic weight was 207.2. My family is the Carbon group and I am classified as a metal. ("The Element Lead”) When I am in room temperature I am solid, but when it gets really hot out, about 327.46°C, I start to melt. Then, I even start to boil at 1749°C. My friends say that I am soft, ductile, and …show more content…
Workers will either mine or blast a tunnel to get me. If they blast the mine I shatter into pieces and fall on the ground. The workers then scoop me up and eventually bring me up to the surface. After I am brought to the surface the workers take me to a concentrating mill where I am smashed into pieces smaller than salt. By doing this they are trying to remove all the waste rock still attached to me. Next I am poured into a flotation cell tank to get all the particles off me. A bunch of other chemicals are poured into the flotation cell with me to get the waste particles off. The waste particles sink to the bottom while I float to the top after some time. After this, I flow to a filter where there 90% of the water is removed from me. From the filter I go to a smelter where sulfur is then removed from me. I am now in the form of sinter after going through the smelter. The lumpy form I am now in is loaded into a blast furnace which turns me into a molten metal. Next comes the refining process. Through this process I am refined further to remove any other impurities because I must be at least 99% pure lead. I am put into a kettle at 330°C eventually causing me to rise to the top. Finally, after this long process, I am put into a block to cool and harden.