Hi
Does anyone know the likely composition of a 17th
century musket ball? (East India Company or British if
relevant)
Odd question for a jewellery historian, I
know, but it was an old practice to cast a diamond crystal in lead and
then file that to determine the best size and shape that could be cut from
it. One 17th century writer says that if you weighed the filed piece of
lead and divided by 3 you would get the weight of the finished stone.
That's out for pure lead (pb sg 11.34 relative to diamond at 3.51-2) but if we
assume it was lead in some form that was readily to hand, it might be
more accurate (its almost dead on for a 90% pb 10% sn alloy, for
example).
Thanks
Jack Ogden