[SEL] How do I tell Babbitt from Lead?

[P. Johns]

This may add to the confusion, or help in some cases.
Type metal, as in printer's type is another lead alloy out there. Metal used
for Foundry type is the hardest, monotype metal is next then there is
linotype metal and spacing metal. All are mostly lead and melt somewhere
between 250 to about 320 degrees depending on exact composition.

Foundry type metal has tin for hardness and antimony to counteract
shrinkage. This used to be expensive, but with computers came obsolescence.
I gave several hundred pounds to a fisherman that used it for sinkers and I
suppose much of it is now gone or in scrap ingots out there.

Paul
Typesetter - learned in 1960.