Another Look at Lead

If you ask an average American their first thought about the metal lead, you would probably hear about lead poisoning. I was even taught that lead poisoning may have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. But lead had an important use in creating the cultural context for the Enlightenment and later the Industrial Revolution.


Click to enlarge and read the words more easily.


The machine at the bottom is a 19th-century type casting machine. (I love the little animal ornaments in the corners of the border.)

I'm a fan of printing generally, the history of printing, the technology, the effects of the innovation... and this broadside, created for the 2010 American Typecasting Fellowship Conference, says it really succinctly.