Use of lead sheets in reconstruction of late medieval tower?
Upvote:2
Many medieval buildings had (and still have) roofs made of lead sheets. This was a very reasonable material for roofs, not vulnerable to corrosion. One disadvantage is that it is very heavy. Also this was a common material for all sorts of pipes and gutters and other metal details. Even in modern times (I mean 50 years ago) lead was commonly used for underground cables protection. You do not explain what exactly were the parts you have seen.
On the question why you have not seen this before, I do not have an answer. It is very common.
Upvote:2
Without seeing a photograph I cannot say for sure, but by far the most likely possibility is that what you are seeing are the remains of what was once a sheeted masonry wall.
In some cases masonry walls were covered with lead or copper sheets as a form of protection. In these cases a groove, called a "raglet", was made in the stone and the sheet of lead inserted into it, then flattened against the wall, and secured the same way on the other side, hammering it in tightly.
The reason why you see only a fragment left in the wall is because a metal scavenger has ripped off the sheeting and sold it for scrap, leaving behind just the strip in the raglet which he could not easily get out.
Upvote:2
In reference to the lead sheets between the Parthenon stones talked about by user3079666 Apr 15 '15 at 12:54, it was common in medieval and ancient masonry to place lead sheets between load bearing stone blocks. The lead would deform to fill the irregularities and evenly distribute the load, keeping the stones from failing due to the load being concentrated at the high spots rather than the entire surface.
I've personally saw lead sheets between load bearing stone blocks next to the main entrance of the Cathedral of St Louis on Bursa Hill (the site of Carthage) near Tunis, Tunisia. The lead was only visible where the edges of the stones had weathered away exposing the lead so I couldn't tell how widely the lead was used.
Upvote:3
In many cases, during early stone structures throughout the European region, there would be "I" (Capital) shaped groves used to connect stones together (half the "i" shaped grove in each side-by-side block) particularly during difficult portions of construction. In many cases these would be filled with molten lead and this lead link would help secure the stones together.
This is very well explained in the book: Castles: A Short History of Fortifications from 1600 B.C. to A.D. 1600, William Heinemann, Ltd., London/Toronto, 1939.
More post
- 📝 Who was the sovereign of the lowest title?
- 📝 Why didn't Asian countries expand and trade with Europe?
- 📝 What was the state of the art of salt production before the invention of graduation towers?
- 📝 Why did the recorded history of Poland start after the reign of Miezsko I?
- 📝 Did Great Britain benefit economically from the loss of America?
- 📝 Have revolutions been won without the military establishment?
- 📝 Are records on the meetings of the Japanese war council during 1945 publicly available?
- 📝 History of scientific regression
- 📝 Can anyone identify this uniform, the rank and if possible the date?
- 📝 Who was the VP during these Civil Rights milestones?
- 📝 Why didn't the Persians make and use ballistas and other kinds of artillery?
- 📝 Why was Benedict Arnold liked by the Tories but scorned by the Whigs?
- 📝 Was lying morally wrong in Medieval Europe?
- 📝 Did anyone besides Heinz Guderian believe that Germany needed to "liberate" Soviets to prevail on the eastern front?
- 📝 What happened to the Polish Calvinists?
- 📝 Why didn't colonial empires exchange their colonies with others empire to make their territories whole?
- 📝 Why have we never found any elephant skeletons in the Western Alps?
- 📝 Were there communes in Imperial Germany?
- 📝 Why did the Royal Society in 1771 believe that a continent further south than Australia should exist?
- 📝 What was the most recent country to be conquered and disappear?
- 📝 Why did Russia give up its claims to the Oregon Country?
- 📝 Comparing Percentage Of Spanish Nobility Migrating To Latin America To Percentage Of Pan-European Nobility Migrating To USA And Canada
- 📝 What evidence is there that Lenin died because he was poisoned?
- 📝 What happened in 1914 that ended the golden age of microbiology?
- 📝 What were The Troubles in Northern Ireland really about?
- 📝 What did men wear at night in the Middle Ages in Europe?
- 📝 Price of a shot and a bottle of whiskey in 1870s American West
- 📝 Where was the first European electric tramway operated?
- 📝 Why do some 17th and 18th century maps depict Ottoman sanjaks north of the Danube in Wallachia?
- 📝 Any precedents of U.S. presidents having served in other government roles after the ends of their terms?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Use of lead sheets in reconstruction of late medieval tower?
- 📝 How did Medieval armies survive the use of mail armor in the deserts of the Middle East?
- 📝 How did commoners in late medieval to early modern Europe learn to read?
- 📝 Why are most late medieval fencing manuals German?
- 📝 What types of weapons did the British army use in the late 1890's?
- 📝 Did Ancient China use lead in their food/water industry as much as the Romans?
- 📝 Did Ancient Rome use lead styli?
- 📝 Did healers in medieval Europe use moldy bread in poultices for wounds?
- 📝 How thick was Late Medieval horse armor?
- 📝 Did they really have individual telephone wires going from a central tower to each customer in Sweden in the late 1800s?
- 📝 In Battle of Zama, how did Hannibal's use of war elephants lead to a Roman Victory?
- 📝 Did the "ancients" use lead plates to prevent pain in their knees?
- 📝 Did medieval scholars believe the Earth was round?
- 📝 Did medieval stores have names?
- 📝 How much smaller were medieval farm animals in England than today?
- 📝 Why exactly did telegraphs have to use "STOP" instead of a period and "QUOTE" instead of a quotation mark? (Or special codes.)
- 📝 Why does Japan use the same type of AC power outlet as the US?
- 📝 Why does Ngram show an extreme spike in use of "LOL" in mid 1600s?
- 📝 Did cows in Medieval times have calves in spring or all year round?
- 📝 Why did the Germans use the Enigma machine rather than the far superior "Lorenz" cipher machine?
- 📝 Were Medieval Britons aware of the existence of the Roman Empire?
- 📝 Where did Medieval Europe's gold come from?
- 📝 Why did Hitler not order the use of poison gas in combat?
- 📝 What were the acceptance criteria in universities of medieval Europe?
- 📝 Did medieval peasants work 150 days a year?
- 📝 Did a significant number of women drive in late 1950s/1960s USA?
- 📝 How literate were common people in Medieval Europe?
- 📝 Was there a plan to use nuclear weapons for terrain modification in North America?
- 📝 Why did only the English adopt, evolve and use the longbow en masse in war?
- 📝 What pretext did Hitler use to justify Operation Barbarossa?