 This video is sponsored by milk chemistry. Check them out and click the link below for 25% off. One of humanity's most important discoveries is how to make the metals we crafted in Smith into our exact needs. Briefly, I've covered what was likely one of the first metals humanity learned to craft, native copper. Copper that already exists in its pure state and just needs to be cold worked. Overnative forms of metal are pretty rare in most places in the world. Most often metals are found combined with other elements in various mineral compounds, learning how to break these compounds down and extract just the metallic element, a process called smelting, was a skill that was slowly learned over thousands of years and would allow humanity to advance first into the Bronze Age and then into the Iron Age. However, the very first metal to be smelted was likely none of those, but lead. The oldest evidence of smelting dates to about 6500 BC of cast lead beads. So, before moving into copper and tin smelting, I first wanted to try to learn a bit about this metal and its history, try and source some of its raw ore, called Galina, and even try a very, very carefully controlled smelting of it. So, where do you find Galina, the ore of lead? Well, an easy way is to go to the city that's named after it, such as the city of Galina. Uhhh, the one in Illinois, in the Tri-State area. This area where Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa meet are best known for their historical lead deposits that helped shape their history. So first, I visited a few locations to see if I could locate any Galina around old dig sites and mines. Found a so-called badger hole where miners would sometimes dig up some of the lead and build a makeshift shelter over it. So I'm going to dig down and see if I can find any leftover lead. So far, I've just found some flint. Nice clay. Shark hole. Yeah, somebody lived here. I think that's a bust. All right, so we went up the Mississippi River here. Supposed to be a bunch of old mines and found one here. Got a half down there. I can't know. It's blocked off like most of them are. I don't know if we're going to be able to get much here. Let's see much in there. So there's a waste rock. And some glass. I think I just got to look in the area to see if there's any small deposits left, either in the cliff wall or in any of the rocks on the ground. So you can find just a small amount of lead. Might be a little difficult. There doesn't seem to be much lead left actually in this area. Got some handlers. This is what was first used to pick X at the stone. Dig in mine. See if I can loosen up. Maybe a chunk of lead somewhere in this. An issue I continuously run into when attempting to do this in the modern era is that areas that were once plentiful with useful resources have now been nearly completely cleared out. And once again was running into this here. No idea. No idea what I'm doing. Going side, Andy. I'm good. Some sort of black mineral. Seems to be deposited at mostly just this little spider. I've pissed him off. Probably this shill or something. Yeah, something. That's cool. So next I visited with an expert in every state in the tri-state area to learn more about this mineral and see if they might have some I could source. My name is Victoria Cotay and I'm the Historic Site Coordinator here for the Dubuque County Historical Society. This is where our mine is. It is underground about 50 feet. Galena was named Galena as Latin for lead sulfite. So because of all of the lead here we got our name. Did you guys want to ring the bell you can? It's a hoot and a half. Don't forget to ring the bell. Subscribe, turn on notifications. It's 90 steps down. Within 1845 they did not have stairs. They would have dug a shaft from the surface of course into the mine about 50, 60 feet and at the top of that would be a windlass. The lower guy in and out he would hang onto a rope. There might be a knot at the bottom so he can hold on with his feet or bucket and he can put a foot in that. This is our lead mine portion. We do have mannequins. Fair warning. There's the Galena lead ore right there. When it's exposed that's how shiny and bright it is. Approximately four to five hundred million years old. So it's so old the dinosaur is walking on top so no dinosaur bones here. And then of course the white stuff. This is all new coming in. It's your calcium based deposits and if you want to touch a select type there's your chance. There's one right there. That's it. Do you want to okay? Then we'll let you do that. And we're also in the Driflus region about 30,000 years ago. The glaciers were cruising down. They came towards us and then went around us. And what that means though for mining is those ore deposits basically every day are getting closer and closer to the surface. So you could find ore the side of a hill, a cave, a couple of feet. You're not going to find huge veins like this. Like you would 50, 60 feet down but you are going to find deposits. Of course the first people are Native Americans. We humans love that sparkly shiny lead ore. What's the history of lead in this area? So because of the Driflus area and the glaciers not going over the Driflus are not crushing our land and having all of these beautiful hills. The lead was still available right on the surface and it was very prevalent in this area. So as Native Americans were able to settle here they were able to just grab a new surface mining. And then they used that lead for different purposes from arrowheads to trading with first settlers that came to using it for their body paint. And then as European settlers came in they started doing deep mining. We were originally founded in 1826 and then in the 1830s, 40s, and 50s hit our peak. Lead it was first kind of discovered around here early 1800s. Rock the Mesquaki who were the tribe in the area. Their settlement was actually over by the mines of Spain. One day in the fire they noticed this rock was melting. Once it was taken out you could make it into anything you wanted. Then when it cooled it was that shape until you put it back in the flame. The Mesquaki tribe they were mining lead here well before the Europeans came. Some of their mines were actually used by Julian de Buic and a select group of miners when they settled the area. They actually had a lead rush very similar to the gold rush in California. When lead was first discovered here you could actually just trip right over it. It was very much just on the ground and then it would go into deep veins as you went. There's actually a thing called a lead plant and apparently it would grow wherever there was a vein because the roots would go very deep into the earth. So that was a way of finding your next bit hit. So this is an example of a lead plant. I've been told that they grow where lead grows. As it would say if that's true there would be lead here. But over time most of the town's sources have been depleted through the years of mining in the 19th century. So you don't just walk around and trip over it? Not like the Native Americans did. This is a badger hut? Yes a badger hut, badger hole, whichever you'd prefer. The badger hole is actually very unique. You don't find this across the US. You really only find it really in Wisconsin and very small areas that border the state. To come in, stake their claim, kind of get it going so that way they could quickly gather up as much as they needed so they could go sell it and then head back home. Before this area was open for settlement so in the 1820s a lot of the miners across the river would come over here and they would mine illegally. The troops would be here in order to keep settlers from coming over. They'd kick them back across the river. So it's a quick grab and go. There were no real tents. You didn't build a cabin. You were just coming here quickly mining and then going back home across the river, usually to Illinois. You could find it near to the surface and that's how the Native Americans could do things like the trench mining if you will where they kind of dig a couple feet. They call them digs but they're bowl-shaped generally maybe a couple feet. Of course when we have explorers and traders come into this area like Julie and Dubuque who is a French-Canadian fur trader basically they do start trading. So people are coming from other parts of the United States. They'll come here and they'll start mining. Then of course word reaches Western Europe but when the Cornish, Welsh and English, when they got here they could mine 50, 60 feet down. The area around here is pretty soft rock. Yeah it's a lot of limestone. Very porous and the water can move very freely through it and does cause some erosion. What are some of the uses of lead? Originally they started as paint. They started as like pipes. They started as bullets. Today we still use it as forms of x-ray protection, gasoline additives. 90% of Civil War bullets were made from lead from this region. They used the lead and they shipped all over the country confederacy and union. In order to get it from this state to here you had to sell it if you didn't have some sort of shot down the area. So you would make it into these types of containers. You put your initials on it so that way you knew your property. No one else could steal it unless they happened to have the same initials as you did. And this was how they would transport the lead to take it from their mines to the smelting or then to the market. It's very easy to work with. You can take this ore sample and you can put it over a hot fire. It melts at a fairly low temperature. A fire will do a hot fire. The sulfur that's in it will burn off which kills all the plant life around it and then you can clear away any slag. So like this kind of stuff would be considered slag. It's just dirt and grime. And then you're left with your pure molten lead. So lots of very easy uses. Areas that they process the lead around here that cause environmental damage? Yes. So we had massive amount of damage. We have old photographs of processing centers where they would smelt the lead down and within a 500 feet radius of these processing centers there would just be nothing vegetation wise. It was completely a blank slate. And even today there are a couple of places where it's hard pressed defying growth in those areas. Going to mine lead. Lead ore. You're okay. I mean your general health risks like your 50 feet underground and it could collapse on you. That's a health risk. If you're smelting it then you're dealing with the fumes. Not just the sulfur you know bringing off but if you're touching it a lot now you've got a problem. If you're using the finished product you know drinking out of the glass eating a tomato off of a plate with lead in it. This is a problem. But the minor themselves that's not there. That's not their problem. So what exactly makes lead so toxic? The negative health effects of lead have been at least known to some extent since 2000 BC but it's however continued to be used for large parts of history. Its use and health effects are theorized by some to be linked to the downfall of the Roman Empire. Royal cups containing lead in China are speculated to have been the cause of report visions and hallucinations through lead poisoning. It was added as a sweetener to wines in the 18th and 19th century. It was used in plumbing up until the 1980s in the U.S. and continued to be used in gasoline in the U.S. until 1990. The heaviest risks with lead are from long-term exposure with developing children being the most susceptible to health consequences. Lead's toxicity is caused by its chemical property of wanting to replace other metals and molecules in the human body which causes proteins in the body to change shape and no longer function as intended. This can cause disruptions of the digestive system, nervous system, respiratory system, reproductive system and more. As well as causing developmental disabilities in children. So let's be super careful when handling lead and take as many safety precautions as possible. So now to head home and attempt to smelt some metal. Thanks to a small sample I was able to collect at the Platteville Mine. First use some clay to form some crude molds of a cup and some sling bullets. Next up I'm going to try and smelt some of the Galena and make some actual lead. But I have a modern knowledge of the health effects of actually doing that so I'm going to take as many safety precautions as possible. Protecting both any exposed skin and most importantly, preventing myself from breathing any vapors. So I definitely wouldn't recommend doing this at home. But for something I would recommend at home you should check out today's sponsor Melt Chemistry. This allows you to do different chemistry experiments at home without any risk and even have a variety of different metal ones. You can make your own metals without potentially poisoning yourself. Which I consider a win-win. Melt Chemistry provides small-scale science experiments that you can do with your niece and nephews to both keep them entertained but also to help them learn a little more about the fundamentals of science and nature you'll need if you ever try to rebuild your own civilization from scratch. Check them out and click the link below for 25% off. For maximum safety I'll be doing a very small batch outside with a vent directly over it that'll suck all the fumes through it into a filter that'll capture any potential lead fumes. Then for extra precaution I'll also wear respirator rated for lead vapors and cover all exposed skin and be sure to discard or wash everything afterwards. For safety reasons and to contain any potential lead contaminants I'm going to do this in a barbecue grill so everything will be contained and I can just toss it when I'm done. Hopefully reducing any potential lead exposure to as small as possible. Lead is pretty easy to smelt because of its lower melting point likely to be done just on a hot fire. Supposedly when in need of lead shots or bullets cobwebs will just place a chunk of galena into a burning stump and the lead would form at the base of it. The actual reaction happening when lead is smelted is two steps. First the lead sulfide is heated and the sulfur is released as a gas while the lead oxidizes into lead oxide. Then burning it with charcoal causes it to reduce into just lead metal. So to smelt it I just combine the lead with a few layers of charcoal to help reduce it as it melts. Alright so everything's cooled off and filled now so it should hopefully be relatively safe. Here's the contents of the crucible and it looks like a lot of it did not react. It's actually still in the galena form so it probably needed a bit longer to actually get most of it. But the crucible cracked so anything that did form likely spilled out and can probably be found in the barbecue. So we dig around and find a few pieces of lead in here. So looks like we did make some lead. Melting lead requires a lower temperature than to smelt it which then has a lower risk of lead vapors. So I melted a larger quantity of lead with the small sample I smelted and cast it into my molds. Here. So I was able to cast a really rough cup out of the lead in a few shots. I'm not too impressed with it. I want to see if I can get it a little better by cold working it. And cold working lead is pretty easy. It's very soft and it's a kneeling temperature. It's actually just room temperature. So you don't have to heat it up again to soften it. Also means you can't work hard on it. It's as hard as it's going to get. And now that it's solid it's pretty safe to handle and touch without getting any poisoning. However if you consume anything and you lead dust that comes off of it that's not going to be good. That's potentially going to poison you. Succeeded in smelting a little bit of lead and then casting lead to make this really crappy cup that is also poisonous. Possibly one of my worst casts should really redo it. I would but I don't really have any desire to expose myself to any more potential toxins. I tried cold working it that did not help at all. Lead is one of the first models we learned how to smelt because that's such a low melting point you can just do it over regular fire. From there we kind of went on and learned how to make hotter fires to smelt new materials such as copper and tin. But lead overall isn't the most useful of metals. It's not very hard. Can't really make a cutting edge. And later we would learn it's very poisonous. So it doesn't really have many practical uses of this stage except for being a heavy object. So we made some sling bullets and Annalise has made a sling for the next episode. She's going to try these out and see how much more it maximizes her distance with a nice dense metal. In the future it'll be useful for things like radiation shielding, batteries, and a variety of other things. But right now it's mostly just a toxic compound that with today's knowledge you shouldn't really use and a lot of stuff. They didn't really stop people from doing that back in the day but a little bit smarter now. So next up now that I know how to smelt a easier metal to move on to something that requires a hotter temperature which requires charcoal and some sort of external air source either from a bellows or a blowpipe. So I'm going to do that next to try and smelt copper in tin and get into the bronze age. Soft lead was also used as a writing instrument by Romans which means my cup and bullets can also double as pencils. It's again about chemistry for sponsoring this video. Check them out and click the link below for 25% off. If you enjoyed this video be sure to subscribe and check out other content we have covering a wide variety of topics. Also if you've enjoyed these series consider supporting us on Patreon. We are largely a fan-funded channel and depend on the support of our viewers in order to keep our series going. Thanks for watching!