"lead-pipe cinch" (antedating to 1888 July 29)

[George Thompson]

>
> During the period in question, I think much routine plumbing could be
> done either with (various types of) iron pipe or with (more expensive
> and durable) lead.
>

When NYC was first supplied with reservoir water, ca. 1840s, the newspapers warned builders not to use lead pipes to carry the Croton water; good advice, and no doubt followed. The neurological damage done by exposure to lead was recognized, if not understood.
I believe that lead pipes could be coated with tin, or some other metal, to avoid this.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
Date: Sunday, July 11, 2010 6:47 pm
Subject: Re: "lead-pipe cinch" (antedating to 1888 July 29)
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> On brief glance at the usual archives, I note (e.g.) "cast iron
> certainty" from 1869. Easy to account for that as a metaphor, I suppose.
>
> By comparison, along with "lead pipe cinch", I see "cast iron cinch"
> from 1892, "iron pipe cinch" from 1899.
>
> Are these just blends? Maybe. Or maybe "iron" actually preceded "lead".
>
> "Iron" would provide a more obvious metaphor, but it could have been
> supplanted by "lead" on the basis "lead pipe is even better than iron"
> or so.
>
> During the period in question, I think much routine plumbing could be
> done either with (various types of) iron pipe or with (more expensive
> and durable) lead.
>
> Somebody with bigger databases (or more cleverness) might be able to
> support or refute such notions.
>
> Need that last volume of HDAS.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org