Re: lead hazard - changed

[four.rings@MCIONE.com]

Robert Myers wrote:

> Lead in old-fashioned leaded gasoline (petrol, Phil :-)) was present as
> tetraethyl lead in which four ethyl groups are attached to one lead atom
> via a rather covalent bong

That brings the old memories back. In early '80s I used to crew for my
girlfriend of the time, who rallied in the "Golden Autumn" and "Russian Winter"
series.

We carried along a 3L jar with the "chemistry" - the tetraethyl lead - and added
it to the conventional 93 octane benzene (gasoline for the US, petrol for the UK
;-).
While it indeed enabled an increase in the octane rating and made running the
stroked and decked high compression Lada 2105 engines possible, man, was it a
b!tch to clean the carburettor afterwards!

Oh, about the damaging effect of Pb on the child's mind: as kids we used to
crush old batteries, pull the Pb plates out, melt them and cast little human
sculls replicas in plaster forms to wear them later as neck ornaments, alá
Caribbean Pirates. I can only imagine the amount of lead fumes I had inhaled as
a kid ... and nothing happened ... and nothing happened ... and nothing happened
... oh ... so what was I saying ... never mind ... it'll come back to me later
... eventually.
:-)

When I come to think about it, the boys do the stupidest things while growing
up, sometimes I wonder how the hell I managed to survive at all. With having
made my own 22 calibre pistol by the age of 12, countless crossbows shooting
sharpened steel electrodes used in the arc welding, pyrotechnic devices one of
which blew half of the kitchen in our apartment and all that stuff.

Thank Heavens my own boy is already 16 now.

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Igor Kessel
'89 200TQ -- 18psi (TAP)
'98 A4TQ -- mostly stock
Philadelphia, PA
USA
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/8949/homepage.html
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