BRASS, in metallurgy, is a fictitious metal, made of copper and zinc, or lapis calaminaris. The French call it yellow copper. The Scriptures inform us, that the first formation of brass was previous to the deluge; but the use of it was not, as is generally believed, and as the Arundelian marbles assert, prior to the knowledge of iron. In the earliest ages, whose manners have been delineated by history, we find the weapons of their warriors invariably framed of this fictitious metal. Military nations were naturally studious of brightness in their arms: and the Ancient Britons, particularly, gloried in the neatness of theirs. Hence various nations continued to fabricate their arms of brass, even after the discovery of iron.
By long calcination alone, and without the mixture of any other substance with it, brass affords a beautiful green or blue colour for glass: but if it be calcined with powdered sulphur, it will give a red, yellow, or chalcedony colour, according to the quantity, and other variations in using it.
Brass-colour, is that prepared by colour-men and braziers to imitate brass; of which there are two sorts: namely, the red brass, or bronze, which is mixed with red-ochre, finely pulverized; and the yellow, or gilt brass, which is made of copper-filings only. Both sorts are used with varnish.
Corinthian brass, is a mixture of gold, silver, and copper; so called from the melting and running together of immense quantities of those metals, when the city of Corinth was sacked and burnt, 146 years before Christ.