Dear Everyone,  I must disagree with Nicholas Simons' assertion
that old lead tubing should be replaced with new lead tubing.  Lead
oxidizes (especially on the insides of the tubes, where no shellac
protectant was applied), and this white, powdery dust then floats
through the air, to some degree or another, every time your pneumatic
instrument is played.  (Blow, don't suck, through a piece of old
tracker bar tubing, someday -- outside -- and just watch what comes
puffing out the other end!)

When these instruments were built, the full danger of lead was not
widely known (hence the disaster with lead water pipes in Flint,
Michigan).  I do not know what level of lead is considered "safe" for
an adult to ingest, but do know that the lead in a paint chip the size
of a fingernail, if ingested by a child, is enough to cause mental
retardation!

Health is more important than historicity.

Gordon Lee Stelter
Athens, Georgia

 [ MMD articles about lead and lead tubing are indexed at
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/KWIC/L/lead.html 
 [ -- Robbie