The Early History of Brass and Zinc

The early history of metallic zinc itself has been reviewed in some detail by Craddock (1990). Although a number of artefacts from the classical world have been reported as being made from zinc, the one which has excited most 

Another reference, this time probably to the calamine process, appears in the works referred to as a pseudo-Aristotelian compilation called On Marvellous Things Heard , probably written in the 3rd Century BC. As translated by Caley (1967 67), the relevant passage runs  

The Mossynoeci were a people who lived in Asia Minor, on the shores of the Black Sea, again in modern-day Turkey. 

The actual isolation of zinc metal on an appreciable scale seems to have occurred first in China in the 10th Century AD (Xu, 1990), using an upwards distillation procedure from secondary (oxidized) zinc minerals. Earlier finds of metallic zinc (such as that at the Agora, noted above) are possibly explained by the chance condensation of small quantities of zinc in the furnace during the production of lead and silver from mixed ores. Much attention has been focused in recent years on northern India, particularly the Zawar region, 

If we accept a date of around AD 1000 for the commencement of the distillation of zinc on a large scale, then, following the work of Craddock (1978), all earlier brasses should contain less than 28% Zn, as this is the approximate upper limit for the calamine process at around 1000 °C. Above this temperature, the process is more efficient, but it is said that the brass produced melts and the active surface area for the process is thus reduced. By granulating the copper and therefore increasing the surface area, the maximum can be pushed to around 33% Zn, but it is unlikely that this was done in Europe until the 18th Century (see Section 6.4). This model is supported by the analytical data Craddock s work on Roman brass indeed shows an upper limit of about 28% zinc. 

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