Zinc is one of those metals which were not known to the Greeks[82],
Romans, or Arabians. This we have reason to conjecture, because it
has not been distinguished by a chemical character like the rest; but
it is fully proved, by our not finding in the works of the ancients
any information that appears even to allude to it. I know but of one
instance where it is supposed to have been found among remains of
antiquity. Grignon pretends that something like it was discovered
in the ruins of the ancient Roman city in Champagne[83]. Such an
unexpected discovery deserved to have been investigated with the
utmost minuteness; but it seems to have been examined only in a very
superficial manner; and as that was the case, it is impossible to
guess what kind of a metal or metallic mixture this author considered
as zinc.
It is not surprising that this metal should have remained so long
unknown, for it has never yet been found in the metallic state. Its
ores are often and in a great degree mixed with foreign ingredients;
and when they are melted, it sublimes in a metallic form, and is found
adhering above to the cool sides of the furnace; but a particular
apparatus is necessary, else the reduced metal partly evaporates,
and is partly oxidized, by which means it appears like an earth, and
exhibits to the eye no traces of metal.
That mixture of zinc and copper called at present brass, tomback,
pinchbeck, princes-metal, &c., and which was first discovered by ores,
abundant in zinc, yielding when melted not pure copper, but brass,
was certainly known to the ancients. Mines that contained ores, from
which this gold-coloured metal was produced, were held in the highest
estimation; when exhausted, the loss of them was regretted; and it
was supposed that the metal would never be again found. In the course
of time it was remarked, no one knows by what accident, that an ore,
which must have been calamine, when added to copper while melting, gave
it a yellow colour. This ore was therefore used, though it was not
known what metal it contained, in the same manner as oxide of cobalt
was employed in colouring glass before mineralogists were acquainted
with that metal itself. Aristotle and Strabo speak of an earth of that
kind, the use of which in making brass has been retained through every
century. Ambrosius, bishop of Milan, in the fourth century; Primasius,
bishop of Adrumetum in Africa, in the sixth; and Isidore, bishop of
Seville, in the seventh, mention an addition by which copper acquired
a gold colour, and which undoubtedly must have been calamine. When in
course of time more calamine was discovered, the ancient method of
procuring brass from copper-ore that contained zinc was abandoned; and
it was found more convenient first to extract from it pure copper, and
then to convert it into brass by the addition of calamine.
Those desirous of inquiring further into the knowledge which the
ancients had of this metal must examine the meaning of the word
_cadmia_, which seems to have had various significations. This task I
have ventured to undertake; and though I cannot clear up everything
that occurs respecting it, I shall lay before my readers what
information I have been able to obtain on the subject, because perhaps
it may amount to somewhat more than is to be found in the works of old
commentators. _Cadmia_ signified, then, in the first place, a mineral
abounding in zinc, as well as any ore combined with it, and also that
zinc-earth which we call calamine. Those who should understand under
it only the latter, would not be able to explain the greater part of
the passages in the ancients where it is mentioned. It is probable
that ore containing zinc acquired this name, because it first produced
brass[84]. When it was afterwards remarked that calamine gave to copper
a yellow colour, the same name was conferred on it also. It appears,
however, that it was seldom found by the ancients[85]; and we must
consider _cadmia_ in general as signifying ore that contained zinc.
Gold-coloured copper or brass was long preferred to pure or common
copper, and thought to be more beautiful the nearer it approached to
the best _aurichalcum_. Brass therefore was supposed to be a more
valuable kind of copper; and on this account Pliny says that _cadmia_
was necessary for procuring copper, that is brass. Copper, as well as
brass, was for a great length of time called _æs_, and it was not till
a late period that mineralogists, in order to distinguish them, gave
the name of _cuprum_ to the former[86]. Pliny says that it was good
when a large quantity of _cadmia_ had been added to it, because it not
only rendered the colour more beautiful, but increased the weight. In
the like manner a quintal of copper in Hungary produces a hundred and
fifty pounds of brass. The same author remarks also that the _cadmia_
(_fossilis_) was not used in medicine: this however is to be understood
only of the raw ore, for some physicians prepared oxide of zinc from
ore that contained zinc, as he afterwards tells us; and Galen extols
the calamine found in Cyprus on account of its superior effects,
because, perhaps, the oxide could be obtained from it much purer.
In the second place, _cadmia_, among the ancients, was what we call
(_ofenbruch_) furnace-calamine, or what in melting ore that contains
zinc, or in making brass, falls to the bottom of the furnace, and
which consists of more or less calcined zinc. As this furnace-calamine
assumes various appearances, according to the manner of melting, and
according to many other circumstances that in part cannot be defined,
and as the ancients comprehend all its varieties under the general
name of _cadmia_, and give to each variety, according to its form,
consistence and colour, a particular name also, a confusion of names
has hence arisen which cannot now be cleared up, especially as it is
not thought worth while to distinguish all its incidental variations.
Our physicians esteem only the pure oxide of zinc; and as they know
how to obtain it, they are not under the necessity of using impure
furnace-calamine. In our melting-houses it is employed, without much
nicety in the choice, for making zinc or brass[87].
What here appears to me most singular is, that the ancients should have
given the same names to furnace-calamine as they gave to ores that
contained zinc. The affinity of these substances they could conjecture
only from their effects, or perhaps they were induced to do so from
observing that furnace-calamine was not produced but when the different
kinds of _cadmia_, as they were called, were melted; that is, when
yellow and not red copper was obtained. _Ofenbruch_ got the name of
furnace-calamine at Rammelsberg, when it was observed that it could be
employed instead of native calamine for making brass[88]. Were the
ancients then in any measure acquainted with this use of it? Galen
and Dioscorides speak only of its use in medicine, and say nothing of
its being employed in the preparation of brass. The Arabian writers,
particularly the translators of the Greek physicians, speak in a much
clearer manner of the preparation of brass; but the appellations which
they employ are so indeterminate in their signification, that an
answer to the above question cannot be deduced from them. _Climia_,
which some pronounce _calimia_ and from which the modern Greeks made
_kelimia_, and the Latins _lapis calaminaris_, seems to have entirely
the same meaning as _cadmia_. _Tutia_, which occurs first in the
eleventh century, in Avicenna, and which the Greeks write _toutia_,
or perhaps more properly _thouthia_, signifies sometimes _pompholyx_;
but in common it seems to express also minerals that contain zinc, and
likewise furnace-calamine[89]. Could it be proved that the _tutia_
of the Arabs and later Greeks was furnace-calamine, or the _tutia_
of our druggists, the oldest account with which I am acquainted of
furnace-calamine, employed in making brass, would occur in Zosimus,
who, according to every appearance, lived in the fifth century[90].
This author tells us, that in order to make brass, Cyprus copper must
be melted, and pounded _tutia_ must be strewed over it. Salmasius
suspects that Zosimus here means only calamine: but however this may
be, his receipt has been retained till the present time in books on the
arts; for these recommend not calamine, but _tutia_[91].
We can with more certainty affirm that this use of furnace-calamine, in
making brass, was known to Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth century;
for he says, first, that yellow copper was made by the addition of
calamine, which he calls _lapis calaminaris_. He tells us afterwards,
that Hermes taught how to give a gold colour to copper by throwing
pounded _tutia_ into the melted metal. _Tutia_, says he, which is
used in the transmutation of metals, is not a native mineral, but
an artificial mixture, produced in the furnace when copper-ore is
melted; and he advises glass-gall to be strewed over the ore, otherwise
calamine and _tutia_ will lose their force in the fire[92]. It would
appear that the last-mentioned name, in the thirteenth century,
signified only furnace-calamine, and that its use for making brass was
at that period known.
For many centuries, however, the _ofenbruch_ (furnace-calamine), with
which, as we are told, the furnaces at Rammelsberg overflowed, was
thrown aside as useless, till at length, in the middle of the sixteenth
century, Erasmus Ebener first showed that it might be used instead
of native calamine for making brass. This Ebener, descended from the
noble family of that name at Nuremberg, was a man of great learning,
and an able statesman. He was employed by his native city, and by
foreign princes, on occasions of the highest importance. In 1569 he
was privy-counsellor to Julius duke of Brunswick, and died in 1577,
at Helmstadt, where he was buried. I regret much that I can give no
further account of this important discovery; the time even when it was
made is not known with certainty. Lœhneyss says that it was sixty years
before the period when he wrote. But at what period did he write? The
oldest edition, with which I am acquainted, of his treatise on mines,
is of the year 1617, so that this discovery would fall about the year
1557[93]. Calvör caused to be printed an old account of the Rammelsberg
mines, which was said to have been published in 1565. According to that
work, Ebener made the above-mentioned observation at Nuremberg, about
seventeen years before, that is, about the year 1548. Schluter assigns
as the period about 1550, and Honemann about 1559. We may therefore
very safely place it in the middle of the sixteenth century, and
probably the discovery happened in 1553, at which time Ebener was sent
to duke Henry, with whom he continued a long time, as we are expressly
told by Doppelmayer. This use of calamine refuse induced the managers
of the profitable brass-works in the Harz forest to pick up carefully
that which before had been thrown aside. Duke Julius, who endeavoured
to improve every branch of manufacture, and particularly what related
to metallurgy, and who, agreeably to the then prevailing mode of
princes, suffered himself to be duped with the hopes of making gold,
improved the brass-works at Buntheim, below Harzburg, and by these
means brought a great revenue to the electoral treasury.
Another production of zinc, artificial white vitriol, was also long
prepared, used and employed in commerce before it was known that it was
procured from this metal. That it was not known before the middle of
the sixteenth century, and that it was first made at Rammelsberg, may
with confidence be affirmed. Schluter ascribes the invention of it to
duke Julius, and places it in the year 1570: but it must be somewhat
older than the above-quoted account of Rammelsberg; for the author,
who wrote about 1565[94], relates, that in his time one citizen only,
whom he calls Henni Balder, boiled white vitriol; and it appears that
this person kept the process a secret. That the invention was not then
new, is evident from his adding, that what its effects might be in
medicine had not been examined; but that its use in making eye-water
had been known almost as early as the time when it was discovered. This
agrees with another account, according to which the method of boiling
white vitriol was found out at the time when Christopher Sander, whose
service to the Harz is well-known, was tithe-gatherer. Honemann says
that Sander was tithe-gatherer at the mines of the Upper Harz before
the year 1564, but that in this year he was principal tithe-gatherer
and director of the mines and melting-houses at Goslar. Sander himself,
in a paper dated August 3, 1575, seems to ascribe the invention of
white vitriol to duke Julius[95].
At first this salt was called _Erzalaun_, a name occasioned by its
likeness to alum, but afterwards it was more frequently known by those
of _Gallitzenstein_, _Golitzenstein_, and _Calitzenstein_. The latter
names however appear to be older than white vitriol itself; as we
find that green vitriol, even before the year 1565, was called green
_Gallitzenstein_. May not the word be derived from _gallæ_; because it
is probable that vitriol and galls were for a long time the principal
articles used for making ink and in dyeing? I am of opinion that the
white vitriol, which is produced in the mines of Rammelsberg in the
form of icicles, gave rise to the discovery and manufacture of this
salt. The former, so early as the year 1565, was called white native
vitriol, or white _Gogkelgut_, and was packed up in casks, and in that
manner transported for sale[96]. I shall not here enter into the old
conjectures respecting the origin and component parts of this vitriol;
but it deserves to be remarked, that Henkel and Neumann[97] observed
in it a mixture of zinc, by which Brandt, a member of the Swedish
council of mines, was led to prove, that, when pure, it consists of
vitriolic acid and oxide of zinc; and this was afterwards confirmed by
Hellot[98].
I come now, in the last place, to the history of this metal, which,
when furnace-calamine was used, could not remain long unobserved, as
it is sometimes found amongst it uncalcined in metallic drops. It is
worthy of remark, that Albertus Magnus, who first described the use
of furnace-calamine in making brass, is the oldest author in whose
works mention is made of zinc. He calls it _marchasita aurea_. This
was properly a stone, the metallic particles of which were so entirely
sublimated by fire, that nothing but useless ashes remained behind.
It contained fixed quicksilver, communicated a colour to metals, on
which account it was well known to the alchemists, burned in the fire,
and was at length entirely consumed. It was found in various parts,
but that at Goslar was the best, because the copper it contained
seemed to have in it a mixture of gold. To give this copper however
a still greater resemblance to gold, some tin was added to it, by
which means it became more brittle. This marchasita also rendered
copper white as silver. Thus far Albertus. It obtained without doubt
the name of _marchasita aurea_, because zinc communicates a yellow
colour to copper; and for the same reason the Greeks and the Arabians
called _cadmia_ golden or _aurea_. But how could Albertus say that
marchasite made copper white? Did he commit a mistake, and mean tin?
To me this appears not probable, as at one time he seems to call it
_argentea_. I imagine that he knew that copper, when mixed with as much
zinc as possible, that is, according to Scheffer, eighty-nine pounds
to a hundred, became white; and it appears that by this he wished to
establish its affinity with quicksilver.
The next author who gives an intelligible account of this metal is
Theophrastus Paracelsus, who died in 1541. I do not however imagine
that it was forgotten in this long interval, at least by those who were
called alchemists. I am rather of opinion, that on account of the great
hopes which it gave them by the colouring of copper, they described it
purposely in an obscure manner, and concealed it under other names,
so that it was not discovered in their works. There are few who would
have patience to wade through these, and the few who could do so, turn
their attention to objects of greater importance than those which
occupy mine. Gold and silver excepted, there is no metal which has had
formerly so many and so wonderful names as zinc[99]. For this reason,
chemists long believed that zinc was not a distinct metal, but only a
variety of tin or bismuth; and with these perhaps it may hence have
been often confounded.
The name zinc occurs first in Paracelsus. He expressly calls it a
distinct metal, the nature of which was not sufficiently known; which
could be cast, but was not malleable, and which was produced only in
Carinthia. Was he then unacquainted with the zinc of Goslar, which was
known at an earlier period to Albertus Magnus[100]? George Agricola,
who wrote about the year 1550, speaks however of the Goslar zinc,
but he calls it _liquor candidus_, and in German _conterfey_[101].
Mathesius, who published his sermons in 1562, says, “at Freyberg there
is red and white zinc.” Perhaps he did not mean the metal, but minerals
that contained zinc. George Fabricius, who died in 1571, conjectures
that _stibium_ is what the miners call _cincum_, which can be melted,
but not hammered.
It is seen by these imperfect accounts that this metal must have been
scarce, even in the middle of the sixteenth century, and that it was
not in the collection of Agricola, which was considerable for that
period. Libavius, who died in 1616, mentions it several times, but he
regrets, in one of his letters, that he had not been able to procure
any of it[102]. Was this owing to the prohibition of duke Julius, by
which it was forbidden to be sold? This prohibition is quoted by Pott
from Jungii Mineralogia, with which I am unacquainted; but as Pott has
already, by his unintelligible quotations, made me spend many hours to
no purpose, I shall not waste more in searching for it. The prohibition
alluded to is mentioned neither by Rehtmeier nor by any other author.
The foolish taste for alchemy, which prevailed then at the duke’s
court, makes it not altogether improbable that one was issued[103];
and if that was really the case, it was occasioned not so much by any
dread of this metal being misused, as Pott thinks, but by the high
hopes which were entertained of its utility in making gold. The first
accurate and certain account of the method of procuring zinc at Goslar,
is, as far as I know, given by Lœhneyss, in 1617, though he considers
it to be the same as bismuth[104]. Joh. Schrœder of Westphalia, who
died in 1664, calls it _marcasita pallida_.
The first person who purposely procured this metal from calamine, by
the addition of some inflammable substance, was undoubtedly Henkel, who
gave an account of his success in the year 1741, though he concealed
the whole process[105]. After him, Dr. Isaac Lawson, a Scotsman, seems
to have made experiments which proved the possibility of obtaining
zinc in this manner on a large scale; and in 1737 Henkel heard that it
was then manufactured in England with great advantage. Of this Lawson
I know nothing more than what is related by Dr. Watson[106]. Anthony
von Swab, member of the Swedish council of mines, procured this metal
afterwards from calamine by distillation, in 1742; as did Marggraf in
1746, who appears however not to have been acquainted with the Swedish
experiment. In the year 1743, one Champion established zinc works at
Bristol, which were continued by his successor James Emerson, who
established works of the like kind at Henham, in the neighbourhood.
The manner in which the metal was procured, has been described by Dr.
Watson in his Chemical Essays.
The greater part of this metal, used in Europe, was undoubtedly brought
from the East Indies. The Commercial Company in the Netherlands,
between the years 1775 and 1779, caused to be sold, on their account,
above 943,081 pounds of it[107]. In the year 1780, the chamber of
Rotterdam alone sold 28,000 pounds; and I find, by printed catalogues,
that the other chambers, at that period, had not any of it in their
possession. If the account given by Raynal be true, the Dutch East
India Company purchased annually, at Palimbang, a million and a half
of pounds[108]. In 1781, the Danish Company at Copenhagen purchased
153,953 pounds of tutenage, which had been carried thither in two
vessels, at the rate of from four and one-eighth to four and a quarter
schillings Lubec per pound. It is probable that the English and Swedes
import this article also. It would be of some consequence if one could
learn in what part of India, when, and in what manner this metal was
first procured, and in what year it was first carried thence to Europe.
According to the scanty information which we have on the subject, it
comes from China, Bengal, Malacca[109], and the Malabar coast, from
which copper and tin are also imported. In the oldest bills of lading
of ships belonging to the Netherlands I find no mention of zinc; but it
is possible that it may be comprehended under the name of Indian tin;
for so it was at first called. Savot, who died about the year 1640,
relates, on the authority of a contemporary writer[110], that some
years before the Dutch had taken from the Portuguese a ship laden with
this metal, which was sold under the name of _speautre_. It is probable
therefore that it was brought to Europe so early as the beginning of
the seventeenth century. Indian tin is mentioned by Boyle.
It is probable that this metal was discovered in India before anything
of the European zinc had been known in that country; but we are still
less acquainted with the cause of the discovery than with the method of
procuring the metal. We are told that an Englishman, who, in the above
century, went to India, in order to discover the process used there,
returned with an account that it was obtained by distillation _ver
descensum_.
Respecting the origin of the different names of this metal, I can
offer very little. _Conterfey_ signified formerly every kind of metal
made in imitation of gold[111]. Frisch says it was called _zink_, from
which was formed first _zinetum_, and afterwards _zincum_, because
the furnace-calamine assumes the figure of (_zinken_ or _zacken_)
nails or spikes; but it is to be remarked that these names do not
occur before the discovery of this metal, though _ofenbruch_ was known
long before. Fulda speaks of the Anglo-Saxon _sin_, _zink_, which he
translates _obryzum_. _Spiauter_, _speauter_, and _spialter_, from
which Boyle made _speltrum_, and also _tutaneg_ or _tuttanego_, came
to us from India with the commodity. Under the last-mentioned name
is sometimes comprehended a mixture of tin and bismuth. _Calaem_ is
also an Indian appellation given to this metal, and has a considerable
likeness to calamine; but I am of opinion with Salmasius that the
latter is not derived from the former, as _lapis calaminaris_ occurs
in the thirteenth century, and _calaem_ was first brought to us by the
Portuguese from India.
[Most of the zinc works in this country are situated in the
neighbourhood of Birmingham and Bristol; a few furnaces also exist
in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, among the coal-pits surrounding
that town; there is also one at Maestag in Glamorganshire. The ores
worked at Bristol and Birmingham are principally obtained from the
Mendip-hills and Flintshire; those at Sheffield from Alston Moor. The
greater part however of the zinc used in this country is imported in
ingots and plates from Silesia, by way of Hamburg, Antwerp, Dantzic,
&c. We receive annually from 100,000 to 170,000 cwts. from Germany; of
this quantity, about 80,000 cwt. are entered for home consumption, and
the rest is exported for India.
From its moderate price and the ease with which it can be worked,
zinc is now extensively used for making water-cisterns, baths, pipes,
covering of roofs, and a great many architectural purposes. It has also
of late been employed in the curious art of transferring printing,
known under the name of _Zincography_, but owing to the ease with
which this metal becomes coated with a film of oxide or carbonate,
by exposure to the air, the plates cannot be preserved for any great
length of time.]