Calamine brass is brass produced by a particular alloying technique using the zinc ore calamine directly, rather than first refining it to metallic zinc. Direct zinc smelting appears to have been unknown in Europe until the mid-18th century, even though the alloyed calamine brass was in use for centuries, and metallic zinc was produced directly via reducing-atmosphere smelting in India and China from the 12th century CE onwards.
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and, when it was first developed, methods for producing metallic zinc were unknown. Metallurgists wishing to produce brass thus used calamine (actually a mixture of the virtually indistinguishable zinc ores smithsonite and hemimorphite) as the zinc component of brass. The resulting brasses, produced by heating a mixture of copper and calamine to a high temperature for several hours (allowing zinc vapor to distill from the ores and permeate the metallic copper), contained a significant amount of slag material resulting from the non-zinc components of calamine. The use of ore rather than metallic zinc also made it difficult to accurately produce the desired final proportion of copper to zinc. This process is known as cementation.
Calamine brass was produced using proportions of two-sevenths fine copper, four-sevenths calamine, and one-seventh shruff (old plate brass). Calamine brass was the first type of brass produced, probably starting during the 1st millennium BC, and was not replaced in Europe by other brass manufactures until the 18th century. It is likely that Indian brass manufacturers had developed more advanced techniques some centuries earlier.[citation needed]
The area around La Calamine, now Kelmis, in Belgium, was the source of much of the medieval brass of northern Europe. Brass production was introduced to England in 1587 when several members of the Company of Mineral and Battery Works obtained a licence from the company (within whose monopoly it was) to build a brass works at Isleworth. However a decade later the company obstructed the owners from mining calamine. A plaque at Tintern Abbey claims that the well-known brassworks at this site began in 1568.[note 1][note 2]
New brass works were built by a German immigrant in 1649 at Esher, probably using Swedish copper. After the passing of the Mines Royal Act in 1689, further works were built near Bristol, where brass production became a major industry in the 18th century.[1][2] Later brass production sites in England included Cheadle and Birmingham.
Calamine brass was slowly phased out as zinc smelting techniques were developed in Europe, which produced metallic zinc more suitable for brass production than calamine. However, the conversion away from calamine brass manufacture was slow; a British patent was awarded to William Champion in 1738, but the alloying of metallic zinc and copper to produce brass was not patented until 1781 (by James Emerson), and calamine brass mills persisted in South Wales until as late as 1858. The slow diffusion of this technology was probably the result of economic factors.
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).
^Day, J. (1973). Bristol Brass. David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-6065-5.
^"A Short History of Baptist Mills Brass Works - Part One: The Early Years, 1700 - 1720". Archived from the original on 2005-03-10. Retrieved 2005-08-03.
Calaminebrass is brass produced by a particular alloying technique using the zinc ore calamine directly, rather than first refining it to metallic zinc...
production of calamine brass in Germany and the Low Countries, areas rich in calamine ore. These places would remain important centres of brass making throughout...
(then called "latten" - a zinc-copper alloy produced via the obsolete calaminebrass process) and rubbing the paper with graphite, wax, or chalk, a process...
utensils. Brass of this period is made through the calaminebrass process, from copper and zinc ore. (Later brass was made with zinc metal from Champion's smelting...
5%-97% Copper) (beryllium)j Billon (silver) Brass (zinc) see also Brass §Brass types for longer list Calaminebrass (zinc) Chinese silver (zinc) Dutch metal...
period, brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, was usually produced by a cementation process in which metallic copper was heated with calamine, a zinc ore...
Examples of brass mills include Brassmill (Ross on Wye) Saltford Brass Mill Calaminebrass Latten William Champion Day, J. (1973). Bristol Brass. David &...
worthless. The manufacture of brass was known to the Romans by about 30 BC. They made brass by heating powdered calamine (zinc silicate or carbonate),...
Keynsham. The brass was made from Cornish ores refined at Crew's Hole and then transported via the river. These were mixed with calamine from the Mendip...
Humfrey needed someone knowledgeable about calamine ore, essential to the production of latten and brass, and in 1563 he paid the way to England of a...
also an ancient name for calamine or zinc carbonate. Combined with copper, it was used in ancient times for the production of brass, as mentioned, for instance...
Champion is credited with patenting in Britain a process to extract zinc from calamine in a smelter, a technology that bore a strong resemblance to and was probably...
for brass production at that time. Rivers like the Vichtbach, which passes by the factory, supplied the power to move the water wheels. Calamine, a major...
for weapons and vessels. The greatest interest in calamine had been in the 18th century when brass manufactures settled in Stolberg (Rhineland). For the...
solid copper metal with zinc oxide or carbonate which comes in the form of calamine or smithsonite. This is heated to about 900 °C, the zinc oxide vaporizes...
banking room included Alaskan and Kasota marble, Honduran mahogany, and Calaminebrass for doors. By August 1913, the building was complete and tenants began...
Philosophy of scientific explanation. Two kinds of mineral with zinc: calamine and Smithsonite. (Rasaratna Samuccaya 2-149) Color and nature of the mineral...
subjects ranging from coffee making to the use of calamine, eventually renamed smithsonite, in making brass. He also studied the chemistry of human tears...
history of the village. The calamine from the ore mine Breinigerberg was used exclusively in Stolberg for the production of brass. The history of Breinigerberg...
diaper rashes, calamine cream, anti-dandruff shampoos, and antiseptic ointments. The Romans produced considerable quantities of brass (an alloy of zinc...
licensed its right to use calamine to make brass in 1587 to a group of company members led by John Brode. They set up brass works at Isleworth, but a...
brass, which consists of copper tinted with the colour of the mineral calamine. And yet if any should be dug up, it would be a proper metal. Black and...
brother-in-law Thomas Harvey had brass works at Coalbrookdale. This is likely to be linked to an increase in shipment of 'Callumy' (Calamine) up the river Severn...
(zinc carbonate, calamine) or wo chhein (zinc metal) is mixed and combined with chih thung (copper), one gets 'yellow bronze' (ordinary brass). When phi shang...
municipality of Plombières), Neutral Moresnet was renamed Kelmis (in French: La Calamine) – after kelme, the local dialect word for zinc spar. Despite the annexation...
Theophrastus), chrysocolla, agate, cinnabar, orpiment, realgar. First brass (calamine plus copper process) appears in the middle of first century BC in the...
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