Bronze and Brass

A surprising number of people do not know what bronze and brass are made of. Many of them think they're metals rather than compounds, imagining they are harvests as Bronze Ore or Brass Ore. I find this hugely amusing and disappointing depending on the person.

Bronze is actually a mixture of copper and tin. As a metal it casts reasonably hard and retains its shape when used as a tool so its the original mass production material, like plastic is today. During the Bronze Age, the Romans cast cups and sewing needles, knives, cutlery etc out of bronze. Not always a good choice if its going to be exposed to even weak acids like wine, but then the Romans made both their water pipes and their wine corks out of lead so they ended up consuming quite a lot of it be accident, which killed them. The richer you were, the more wine you drank, the sooner you went sterile, mad, and died.

However, Bronze was a very useful thing and it enabled the Romans to provide all the various cheaply cast objects their civilization was founded on to be used and traded about their empire. When the Tin ran out in Cyprus they found more in Crimea. When it ran out in Crimea, they found more in Jerusalem. When they ran out in Jerusalem, they found more in Cornwall. That's about the only reason they were up in Britain, to get Tin so they could keep making bronze. When the mine played out, the Romans retreated from Britain. These days most people use bronze for the threaded parts of a hose or the tip that makes adjustable spray, statues, and the propellors of a ship.

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Brass is softer than bronze, but slightly more corrosion resistant. During the 19th and early 20th centuries it was used for both finely machined scientific instruments (those newfangled microscopes and watches) as well as housings and doorknobs. Like bronze, it was easily cast into various shapes so was very useful for mass production. A foundry can cast exact copies of filigree covered doorknobs in brass for the same cost as a plain doorknob. This changed how the world looked and made beautiful things affordable to the world. Mass Production has many upsides for the common man.

Early plastics were discovered by accident, when an attempt to make artificial quinine created nylon. This was then cast or drawn and spun in many kinds of materials and is still used today. There are many other kinds of plastics, but they all start with organic compounds and are useful because they can be cast and hold their shape, allowing lighter weight than Brass or Bronze. We would never have had airplanes if we were relying on brass, bronze, and glass to build them.

Production of steel has actually been around in Africa for 80,000 years. They never had a bronze age there. What would be the point? Sadly, other than blacksmithing spear points and casting cook pots, the Africans didn't seem to do much with their iron works. For whatever reason, they had other concerns. Europeans learned these secrets and started casting, using secondary tools to machine those castings, and using those, properly maintained, to take over the world. Trains, cars, steam engines and water pumps, ships, barges. Iron and steel enabled us to do many things and explore our world. With steel being much stronger than bronze and brass, most mechanical devices are built out of it. 

Eventually the means to mass produce aluminum was discovered and how to convert bauxite ore into the metal it was oxidized from, using heat and electricity in an argon atmosphere, then extrude ingots or railings as needed. Aluminum is used for aircraft since it is half the weight for the same strength of steel. It can also be heat treated to incredible hardness and is naturally coated against oxidation by a thin layer of aluminum oxide aka Corundum aka Sapphire/ruby. Yeah. You can also think of it as dirt since most clays are made of aluminum oxide too.

So you can see, bronze and brass led to plastics, steel and aluminum. How about that?