Carl:

This sounds like it may be a souvenir.  I once excavated a site on which we 
found a lead Statue of Liberty and a Lead Eiffel Tower.  As a kid I had a 
lead Washington Monument with a mercury thermometer in it (what a great toy 
for children, and that may explain a few things.)

Or, it may be a scientific toy.  Recently we had a guy from Jefferson Labs 
come into the Children's Museum to do a liquid nitrogen demonstration 
(really "cool," if you get my "drift").  One of his props was a pewter cup, 
known as a "Jefferson Cup" here in VA, known as a pewter cup 
elsewhere.  This pewter cup, while at room temp, had a dull thud when 
struck, but after a minute or so in a soothing bath of liquid Nitrogen at 
-196 °C the pewter cup rang clear as if made of the finest silver (well, 
nearly so).

Here's their set up with the Jefferson Cup:
http://education.jlab.org/beamsactivity/6thgrade/hotandcold/overview.html

Here are some pages I found with the same experiment using an actual lead bell:
http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~phy-demo/demo-txt/4a40-10.html
http://www.physics.uiowa.edu/~dstille/chem/4A40.10.htm
http://www.physics.purdue.edu/demo/3E/liquid_nitrogen.html

Does anyhting look familiar?

The best part of Liquid Nitrogen Day was using a banana as a hammer.

Send me on a copy of the photo.

         Dan W.




At 10:13 AM 2/13/02, you wrote:
>Artifact question:
>
>I have a lead  bell (shaped like the Liberty bell) about 30mm in diameter 
>at base and 25mm tall. It has an iron nail through the center. It is 
>marked "Landreth / Phila / Trade Mark" I think that it is an insulator, but
>I am by no means certain. Does anyone have any info on this company or 
>other lead bells? Context is late 19th century/early 20th century. I'll be 
>glad to send a photo...
>
>Thanks,
>
>
>Carl Steen
>Archaeologist
>The Diachronic Research Foundation
>PO Box 50394
>Columbia, SC 29250
>Web Site: http://diachronicresearch.com