Calamine brass Calamine brass 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
Calamine brass 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). 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