Calamine brass slowly phased out as zinc smelting techniques were developed in Europe, which produced metallic zinc more suitable for brass production than calamine. However, the conversion away from calamine brass manufacture was slow; a British patent was awarded to William Champion in 1738, but the alloying of metallic zinc and copper to produce brass was not patented until 1781 (by James Emerson), and calamine brass mills persisted in South Wales until as late as 1858. The slow diffusion of this technology was probably the result of economic factors. Calamine brass Calamine brass is brass produced by a particular alloying technique using
Period 2 element O, but also O and O. Oxygen is the third-most common element by mass in the universe (although carbon forms more of the atoms it is a lighter atom). It is highly electronegative and non-metallic, usually diatomic, gas down to very low temperatures. Only fluorine is more reactive among non-metallic elements. It is two electrons short of a full octet and readily takes electrons from other elements. It reacts violently with alkali metals and white phosphorus at room temperature and less violently with alkali earth metals heavier than magnesium. At higher temperatures it burns most other metals and many non-metals