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

[Douglas G. Wilson]

George Thompson wrote:
> ....
> 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.
--

But ... lead water pipes were used widely and routinely anyway, AFAIK.

Here's a statement by Werner Troesken (whose 2006 book on lead water
pipes can be read in part at G-books):

http://papers.nber.org/papers/w9549

<<Municipalities first installed lead pipes during the late nineteenth
century. In 1897, about half of all American municipalities used lead
water pipes.>>

-- Doug Wilson

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