Arsenical copper contains up to 0.5% arsenic which, at elevated temperatures, imparts higher tensile strength and a reduced tendency to scaling. It is typically specified in boiler work, especially locomotive fireboxes. [1] [2] [3] It also helps prevent embrittlement of oxygen-free copper by bismuth, antimony and lead by the formation of complex oxides. Copper with a larger percentage of arsenic is called arsenical bronze, which can be work-hardened much harder than copper.
Arsenic is a chemical element; it has symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but only the grey form, which has a metallic appearance, is important to industry.
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic, and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion. In use since prehistoric times, it is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other within the same crystal structure.
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such as arsenic or silicon. These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as strength, ductility, or machinability.
The Chalcolithic was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in different areas, but is absent in some parts of the world, such as Russia, today. Stone tools were still predominantly used during this period.
Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zinc. Smelting uses heat and a chemical reducing agent to decompose the ore, driving off other elements as gases or slag and leaving the metal behind. The reducing agent is commonly a fossil fuel source of carbon, such as carbon monoxide from incomplete combustion of coke—or, in earlier times, of charcoal. The oxygen in the ore binds to carbon at high temperatures as the chemical potential energy of the bonds in carbon dioxide is lower than that of the bonds in the ore.
Shakudō (赤銅) is a Japanese billon of gold and copper, one of the irogane class of colored metals, which can be treated to develop a black, or sometimes indigo, patina, resembling lacquer. Unpatinated shakudō visually resembles bronze; the dark color is induced by the niiro artificial patination process, involving boiling in a solution, generally including rokushō.
Tennantite is a copper arsenic sulfosalt mineral with an ideal formula Cu12As4S13. Due to variable substitution of the copper by iron and zinc the formula is Cu6[Cu4(Fe,Zn)2]As4S13. It is gray-black, steel-gray, iron-gray or black in color. A closely related mineral, tetrahedrite (Cu12Sb4S13) has antimony substituting for arsenic and the two form a solid solution series. The two have very similar properties and is often difficult to distinguish between tennantite and tetrahedrite. Iron, zinc, and silver substitute up to about 15% for the copper site.
Tombac, or tombak, is a brass alloy with high copper content and 5–20% zinc content. Tin, lead or arsenic may be added for colouration. It is a cheap malleable alloy mainly used for medals, ornament, decoration and some munitions. In older use, the term may apply to brass alloy with a zinc content as high as 28–35%.
The emergence of metallurgy in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica occurred relatively late in the region's history, with distinctive works of metal apparent in West Mexico by roughly 800 CE, and perhaps as early as 600 CE. Metallurgical techniques likely diffused northward from regions in Central or South America via maritime trade routes; recipients of these metallurgical technologies apparently exploited a wide range of material, including alloys of copper-silver, copper-arsenic, copper-tin and copper-arsenic-tin.
Melid, also known as Arslantepe, was an ancient city on the Tohma River, a tributary of the upper Euphrates rising in the Taurus Mountains. It has been identified with the modern archaeological site of Arslantepe near Malatya, Turkey.
Mining in Cornwall and Devon, in the southwest of Britain, is thought to have begun in the early-middle Bronze Age with the exploitation of cassiterite. Tin, and later copper, were the most commonly extracted metals. Some tin mining continued long after the mining of other metals had become unprofitable, but ended in the late 20th century. In 2021, it was announced that a new mine was extracting battery-grade lithium carbonate, more than 20 years after the closure of the last South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall in 1998.
Arsenical bronze is an alloy in which arsenic, as opposed to or in addition to tin or other constituent metals, is combined with copper to make bronze. The use of arsenic with copper, either as the secondary constituent or with another component such as tin, results in a stronger final product and better casting behavior.
Sonti Kamesam was an Indian timber engineer and scientist who worked at the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun. He is best known for his patented wood preservative, ASCU, from the chemical symbols for Arsenic and Copper. The treatment was patented in Britain from 1934 and in the US from 1938. It also went by the name of Chromated Copper Arsenate or CCA in the United States of America from around the 1950s. In his treatment, copper is a fungicide, arsenic is a secondary fungicide and insecticide, while chromium is a fixative which also provides ultraviolet (UV) light resistance. Recognized for the greenish tint it imparts to timber. this preservative was extremely popular for many decades until arsenic toxicity and carcinogenicity was recognized by the US EPA and other regulators.
The South African Railways Class 15 4-8-2 of 1914 was a steam locomotive.
Devon Great Consols was a copper mine near Tavistock in Devon. The lease on the site was taken from the Duke of Bedford in 1844 by a group of investors. The 1,024 shares, sold at one pound each, were divided among the six men. Earlier attempts to mine this property had all ended in failure.
The Namaqualand 0-6-0T of 1871 were two South African steam locomotives from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.
The Namaqualand 0-6-2 Clara Class of 1890 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.
The Namaqua Copper Company 0-4-2STPioneer of 1901 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.
Apache Nitrogen Products began in 1920 as an American manufacturer of nitroglycerin-based explosives (dynamite) for the mining industry and other regional users of dynamite. It occupies a historic location in Cochise County, Arizona and is one of its largest employers. The company changed its name to Apache Nitrogen Products in 1990.
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