Calamine (mineral) crystallographically quite distinct, the two minerals exhibit similar massive or botryoidal external form and are not readily distinguished without detailed chemical or physical analysis. The first person to separate the minerals was the British chemist and mineralogist James Smithson in 1803. In the mining industry the term calamine has been historically used to refer to both minerals indiscriminately. In mineralogy calamine is no longer considered a valid term. It has been replaced by smithsonite and hemimorphite in order to distinguish it from the pinkish mixture of zinc oxide (ZnO) and iron(III) oxide (FeO) used in calamine lotion. In the 16th
Calamine (mineral) century demand for latten (brass) in England came from the needs of wool-carding, for which brass-wire combs were preferred, and battery pieces (brassware formed by hammering sheet brass in a battery mill.) The only known method for producing the alloy was by heating copper and calamine together in the cementation process and in 1568 a royal charter was granted to the Society of the Mineral and Battery Works to search for the mineral and produce brass, to reduce dependence on imported metal from Germany. Factories to exploit the process were established at Isleworth and Rotherhithe. By the late 17th century