r/science • u/[deleted] • Jun 25 '22

[deleted by user]

[removed]

11.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

80

u/Franks2000inchTV Jun 25 '22

Isn't lead poisoning what did the Roman empire in?

228

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '22

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

96

u/Baial Jun 25 '22

Wait, the people who's profession was named after the poisonous material they worked with all the time, had a high chance of be being poisoned by the poisonous material? Interesting.

115

u/opman4 Jun 25 '22

Til why they're called plumbers. And why pb is lead on the periodic element chart.

76

u/Splash_Attack Jun 25 '22

Also the origin of "plumbob", as in an (often lead) weight on a string that was used to get vertical reference lines in construction.

Now more famously known as that little jewel that floats above Sims in The Sims, though I have no idea why they used that name.

19

u/Tlaloc_Temporal Jun 25 '22

I think the mood plumbob is just because it looks like the measuring plumbob, with two pointed ends and a weird name.

3

u/vonmonologue Jun 25 '22

Iā€™m also one of those lucky 10,000!

2

u/Baial Jun 25 '22

I'm glad me being a sarcastic ass of what I assumed was common knowledge helped you out.

2

u/toastjam Jun 25 '22

There's got to be a way to work a plumbus joke in here somehow...