Speculum metal metal mixtures usually contain two parts copper to one part tin along with a small amount of arsenic, although there are other mixtures containing silver, lead, or zinc. The knowledge of making very hard white high luster metal out of bronze-type high-tin alloys may date back more than 2000 years in China although it could also be an invention of western civilizations. Such metals were used in sculpture and to make more effective mirrors than the more common yellow easily tarnishing bronze mirrors. In that era mirrors of speculum metal, or any precious metal, were rare and only owned by
American Brass Company and the company name changed to the Wolcottville Brass Company. The company now began to produce mostly rolled and sheet brass. Anson Phelps purchased a large parcel of land at what is now Ansonia, Connecticut, in 1844. He founded the town of Ansonia, and built a dam across the Naugatuck River. He also built a canal and water reservoirs, and established a copper rolling mill. Phelps named the new company the Ansonia Brass and Battery Company ("battery" being the term then in use for hammering sheets of metal into kettles). Phelps later added a brass mill and a brass wire