Scientific American, September 29, 1883 Supplement. No. 404Various
Science
Scientific American, September 29, 1883 Supplement. No. 404
Various
Science -- Periodicals
_Greece_.--Their wrought bronze for tools and weapons contains 10 to 12
per cent. of tin and traces of nickel and cobalt; in one case 18 per
cent. of tin.
The cast bronze has in part the same composition as wrought bronze.
(Statues were rarely cast from pure copper.) A small quantity of lead
was sometimes added, especially in later times, for statues and coin.
The later coins contained 5 to 7 per cent. lead, even 20 per cent. in
exceptional cases. Macedonian coins were of quite pure bronze.
_Italy_.--Roman weapons (found at Hallstadt) contain 11 to 16 per
cent. of tin, in some cases some zinc or lead, also nickel and iron as
impurities. Roman hatchets found in Gaul contain 20 or 25 per cent. of
tin. We have too few analyses to give us a correct view of the matter,
but on the contrary we have numerous analyses of Roman castings.
Ornamental Roman bronze for flexible articles contains less tin and
lead. For less flexible objects bronze-brass with 1 to 7 per cent. of
tin, and 5 to 12 per cent. of zinc, was employed; and for brittle but
brilliant objects, like buckles and mountings, an almost pure brass was
used, with 15 to 24 per cent. of zinc and little or no tin. Lead is
found in all these alloys in small quantities, rarely more than 1 per
cent.
The statues contain from 6 to 10 per cent. of tin, 0 to 3 per cent.
zinc (in one case 14), and frequently from 10 to 12 per cent. of lead
(once even 20), so that Roman statue bronze may be called lead-bronze
with zinc in it.
Coin metal varied its composition at different times. In the days of
the Republic a lead-bronze rich in tin (5 to 12 per cent.) was used.
Under the early emperors brass or impure copper came into use. After
the time of Marcus Aurelius an improvement is noticeable; the metal
then in use can be called stanniferous brass (1 to 4 of tin). Under the
Byzantines, coins were again struck from impure copper.
These are the most important alloys of the Romans. In general we may
say that the zinc alloys held an important place among the Romans.
_Gaul_.--For weapons they employed a very pure bronze with 2 to 15 per
cent. of tin. Traces of nickel were rare. Cast bronze contained a few
per cent. of lead.
_Britain_.--The weapon bronze contained from 7 to 14 per cent. of tin.
Cutting weapons not infrequently contain 1 to 3 per cent. of lead, and
traces of iron. Ornament bronze does not differ from weapon bronze.
Traces of sulphur are not rare, which points to the use of pyritical
ores.
_Alps_.--Swiss weapon bronze contains 8 to 13 per cent. of tin (in
one case even 16 per cent.), not infrequently 1 per cent. of lead and
traces of silver, very often ½ to 1 per cent. of nickel and traces of
iron (once as much as 3 per cent. of iron). The Swiss ornamental bronze
has the same composition.
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