"N Cook" wrote in message
...

No way, ordinary consumers would understand and object to banning of lead
flashing, whereas complaining about solder seems a bit too geeky and so
won't make the news. The only time I ever saw anything about RoHS in the
ordinary news was when some church-organ-maker was complaining because
the
traditional material for his lead organ pipes would be banned unless he
replaced the electric blower with some kind of manual pump, to make it
non-electric. Of course that got an exception, something like because it
was a fixed installation in the building. I wonder if you nail down your
TV to the floor.....

Seriously though, aluminium flashing (not alloy but very PURE aluminium)
will last quite a long time in the rain (according to my grandfather who
would probably have known, because he did build rooves over a period of
well over half a century. He was also a big fan of lead paint and hated
the new stuff because it wouldn't last hardly any time, probably not even
50 years...)

Chris





Wiltshire | Archive | 2006 | March | 23
EU directive prompts fears for cathedral's organ

From the Salisbury Journal, first published Thursday 23rd Mar 2006.

MUSIC-LOVERS are keeping their fingers crossed that Salisbury Cathedral's
historic Father Willis organ will be renovated before the latest EU
directive comes into force a ruling that could silence the grand pipe
organs
found in cathedrals, churches and concert halls across the UK.

Salisbury's magnificent organ, built in 1877, is currently out of service,
as its console is undergoing repair and restoration in Durham, along with
the equally famous organ from the Royal Festival Hall in London.

The new directive from the European Commission aims to reduce the amount
of
lead used in electrical items and comes into force on July 1.

This week, Tim Hone, director of liturgy and music at Salisbury cathedral,
said that, providing the organ's repair and updating was completed before
that date, it would not contravene the directive.

He told the Journal: "We are anticipating its return around Easter, which
will give us plenty of time. But if anything delays the work, we could run
into problems."

He said the directive sought to minimise the amount of hazardous waste
that
finds its way into landfill. Lead is one such hazard and the new
regulations
permit electrical equipment to have a maximum of 0.1 per cent of their
weight as lead.

Organ pipes, which are made from tin and lead to give them their distinct
sound, can have a lead content of 50 per cent.

Mr Hone said that, although organ pipes were mainly mechanical devices,
they
relied on electrical motors to power blowers, which move air through them
and that brought the organ into the definition of an electrical product.

But organ experts are baffled as to why the directive should apply to
organs, because, when organs are rebuilt, the lead is not thrown away but
is
reused in new or different pipes.

The directive has worried the Institute of British Organ Building because
it
could see the end of the 1,000-year-old craft of organ-building in
Britain.
The institute said: "There is a very black cloud on the horizon".

Tony Baldry, Tory MP for Banbury, is urging the government to intervene to
save the organ. The department of trade and industry has warned that
Britain
must comply with the directive, although exemptions could be granted by
the
EU.

Mr Hone said that, unless an exemption were made or the directive
redrafted,
Salisbury will face the problem again the next time the organ pipes need
cleaning and restoration.

from
http://archive.salisburyjournal.co.u...23/266296.html


I saw a similar thing up here, but I think in the end, it turned out to be
hysterical nonsense, and that the organ builders had basically done what the
people who made this crap legislation in the first place had done - which is
to not to do their homework right in the first place. I seem to remember
reading subsequently that it was not the pipework that was going to be
affected, but the control electronics. I'm no expert in pipe organ
restoration, but I understand that when they are rebuilt and brought up to
date, various control electronics are added now, and that it was going to be
this that would be affected. One such organ builder complained that it was
going to put his current restoration project back six months, because that
was how long it was going to take his electronics supplier, to tool up for
the legislation.

Arfa