Calamine brass a mixture of the virtually indistinguishable zinc ores smithsonite and hemimorphite) as the zinc component of brass. The resulting brasses, produced by heating a mixture of copper and calamine to a high temperature for several hours (allowing zinc vapor to distill from the ores and permeate the metallic copper), contained a significant amount of slag material resulting from the non-zinc components of calamine. The use of ore rather than metallic zinc also made it difficult to accurately produce the desired final proportion of copper to zinc. This process is known as cementation. Calamine brass was produced using proportions of two-sevenths
Breinigerberg its calamine flora. The hill of "Schlangenberg" is 276 metres above sea level and originates in the former ore mine of Breinigerberg. Names like "Bleiweg", which means "Way of lead", even today, give hints to the history of the village. The calamine from the ore mine Breinigerberg was used exclusively in Stolberg for the production of brass. The history of Breinigerberg can be traced back to the Romans. Twenty five coins dated between 100 BC and the year 92/93 AD as well as remains of a Roman craftsmen settlement had been found in the village. The buildings show that the