Roman metallurgy the most important being bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. Alloys are mixtures of different metals created either by smelting or by forging. It is important to note that an ore does not necessarily constitute an alloy; ore is a collection of minerals and alloyed metals. As metallurgical technology developed (hammering, melting, smelting, roasting, cupellation, moulding, smithing, etc.), more metals were intentionally included in the metallurgical repertoire. By the height of the Roman Empire, metals in use included: Gold, Silver, Copper, Tin, Lead, Zinc, Iron, Mercury, Arsenic, Antimony (Healy 1978). As in the Bronze Age, metals were used based
Melchior (alloy) Melchior (alloy) In metallurgy, melchior is an alloy of copper, mainly with nickel (5–30%). Its name originates from , which in turn is distorted , honoring the French inventors of the alloy, Maillot and Chorier. The term melchior sometimes refers not only to the copper-nickel alloys, but also ternary alloys of copper with nickel and zinc ("nickel silver") and even a silvered brass. Melchior is easily deformable by application of pressure, both in the hot and cold state. After annealing, it has a tensile strength of about 40 kg/mm. The most valuable property of melchior is its high resistance to