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
Schlangenberg Nature Reserve the interest in the ore which was mostly used for weapons and vessels. The greatest interest in calamine had been in the 18th century when brass manufactures settled in Stolberg (Rhineland). For the production of the alloy they needed large amounts of calamine which was melted together with copper. Before 1800 digging small reaching only surface based ore was the only technique available to the miners. In the 19th century mining changed and more than 20 adits enabled the workers to reach calamine up to 105 m below the surface. During this time the Schlangenberg-area was perforated like a Swiss