Cementation process in the 1740s. In the early modern period, brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, was usually produced by a cementation process in which metallic copper was heated with calamine, a zinc ore, to make calamine brass. Cementation process The cementation process is an obsolete technology for making steel by carburization of iron. Unlike modern steelmaking, it increased the amount of carbon in the iron. It was apparently developed before the 17th century. Derwentcote Steel Furnace, built in 1720, is the earliest surviving example of a cementation furnace. Another example in the UK is the cementation furnace in Doncaster Street,
Metallic mean Metallic mean The metallic means or silver means (also ratios or constants) of the successive natural numbers are the continued fractions:formula_1 The golden ratio (1.618...) is the metallic mean between 1 and 2, while the silver ratio (2.414...) is the metallic mean between 2 and 3. The term "bronze ratio" (3.303...), or terms using other names of metals (such as copper or nickel), are occasionally used to name subsequent metallic means. The values of the first ten metallic means are shown at right. Notice that each metallic mean is a root of the simple quadratic equation: formula_2, where formula_3 is