Ordinary Meeting, November 3rd, 1874. 
Rev. Wm. Gaskell, M.A., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
\ 
Mr. William Carleton Williams, F.C.S.; Mr, Harry Grim- 
shaw, F.C.S. ; and Mr. William E. A. Axon, M.R.S.L., F.S.I., 
were elected Ordinary Members of the Society. 
''On the Corrosion of Leaden Hot-water Cisterns,” by . 
Professor H. E. Roscoe, F.R.S., &c. 
As the question of the occurrence of lead in town’s water 
has been brought forward in the daily papers, I think it 
right (whilst stating my experience of many years’ duration 
to be that the Manchester Corporation water when cold 
does not take up lead from the pipes under ordinary circum- 
stances) to guard persons from using for drinking purposes 
water drawn from hot-water cisterns made of lead. 
My friend, Mr. Melland, Surgeon, of Rusholme, handed to 
me a white powder taken from the inside of the covering of 
his leaden hot-water cistern, which presented a honey- 
combed surface, and in many places stalactitic masses hung 
down which were from to of an inch in length. 
This powder consisted of a hydrocarbonate of lead, giving 
the following results on analysis : 
Lead Oxide (PbO) 85*67 
Carbonic Acid (CO 2 ) 12*12 
Water (H 2 O) 2*21 
100*00 
It was doubtless formed by the solvent action of the con- 
densed water containing oxygen upon the mietal and the 
subsequent formation of the insoluble hydrocarbonate, and 
there can be little doubt that water drawn from such a 
cistern would be contaminated with lead. 
Peoceedings— Lit. & Phil. Soc. — Vol. XIV.— IVTo. 3 . — Session 1874-5. 
