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
Post-transition metal (MH 2.25) and brittle semi-metallic element. It is commonly regarded as a metalloid, or by some authors either as a metal or a non-metal. Tellurium has a polyatomic (CN 2) hexagonal crystalline structure. It is a semiconductor with a band gap of 0.32 to 0.38 eV. Tellurium forms covalent bonds with most other elements, noting it has an extensive organometallic chemistry and that many tellurides can be regarded as metallic alloys. The common oxide of tellurium (TeO) is amphoteric. Tellurium forms a series of anionic tellurites and tellurates such as NaTeO, NaTeO, and RbTeO (the last containing tetrahedral and trigonal