or, as the French call it, yellow copper, is a fictitious metal, made of copper and zinc, or lapis calaminaris. See CHEMISTRY-Index.

The first formation of brass, as we are assured by scripture, was prior to the flood, and discovered even in the seventh generation from Adam†. But the use of brass it was not, as is generally believed, and the Arundelian marbles attest, previous to the knowledge of iron. They were both first known in the same generation, and first wrought by the same discoverer. And the knowledge of them must have been equally carried over the world afterwards, with the spreading of the colonies of the Noachide. An acquaintance with the one or the other was absolutely necessary to the existence of the colonists; the clearing away of the woods about their settlements, and the erection of houses for their habitation.

The ancient Britons, though acquainted from the remotest periods with the use of both these metals, remained long ignorant that they were to be obtained in the island. Before this discovery they imported all their iron and brass from the continent. And when they had at length detected the former in their own hills, and had ceased to introduce it, they continued to receive the latter. Their want of the metal remained, and no mines of it were opened in the island. In the earliest ages, whose manners have been delineated by history, we find the weapons of their warriors invariably framed of this fictitious metal; and the most authentic of all the profane records of antiquity, the Arundelian marbles, for that reason, mistakenly date the first discovery of iron a couple of centuries below the Trojan war. Every military nation, as such, is naturally studious of brightness in its arms; and the Britons, particularly, gloried in the neatness of theirs. For this reason the nations of the world still fabricated their arms of brass, even long after the Arundelian era for the discovery of iron; and the Britons continued to import it from the continent, though they had found iron to be a native of the country, and could have supplied themselves with a sufficient quantity of it.

Mr Whittaker† supposes, that when the Britons derived their iron and brass from the continent, they purchased the latter at an easier expense than the former. The Gauls had many large brass works carried on in the kingdom, but seem to have had few iron forges within it. And this would naturally induce the Belgae to be less diligent in their inquiry after the veins of copper and calamine at home, than for the courses of iron ore; though the one was equally discoverable in the island as the other, and lay equally within the Belgic regions of it. Brass being thus cheaper than iron, they necessarily formed with it some domestic as well as military implements. Such were common among the Gauls; and such were familiar to the Britons, either imported into the island, as some actually were, or manufactured within it, as others also assuredly were. The Britons had certainly brass foundries erected among them, and minted money, and fabricated weapons of brass.

In this condition of the works, the Romans entered the island. And seeing so great a demand among the natives for this article, they would speedily instruct them to discover the materials of it among themselves. This must unavoidably have resulted from the conquest of the Romans. The power of surprising their new subjects with so unexpected a discovery would naturally stimulate the pride of the Roman intellect; and the desire of obliging themselves with so cheap a supply of that useful metal, stationary as they were in that kingdom, would also equally actuate the selfishness of the the Roman heart. The veins of copper and calamine would be easily found out by an experienced inquirer after them; and the former metal is therefore distinguished among the Welsh, only by the Roman appellation of cyprium, koppr or copper. And many fountains of bras appear to have been established in the island. Some had been erected before, one perhaps within the confines of every kingdom, and probably in the vicinity of every capital. One at least would be necessary, in order to supply the armory of the principality; and one perhaps was sufficient for most of the British states. But several appear now to have been settled in every kingdom, and one perhaps near every stationary town. Two have been discovered in the single county of Essex, and within a narrow portion of it at Fifield and Danbury. And a third was placed upon Easterly Moor in Yorkshire, 12 miles to the north-west of York, and in the neighbourhood of Iurium or Aldborough.

Corinthian Brass, famous in antiquity, is a mixture of gold, silver, and copper. L. Mummius having sacked and burnt the city of Corinth, 146 years before Christ, it is said this metal was formed from the immense quantities of gold, silver, and copper, where-with that city abounded, thus melted and run together by the violence of the conflagration.

the glass trade.—Thrice-calced bras is a preparation which serves the glaziers to give many very beautiful colours to their metal. The manner of preparing it is this: Place thin plates of bras on tiles on the leet of the furnace near the ovens; let it stand to be calcined there for four days, and it will become a black powder sticking together in lumps. Powder this, sift it fine, and recalcine it four or five days more; it will not then stick together, but remain a loose powder, of a russet colour. This is to be calcined a third time in the same manner; but great care must be taken in the third calcination, that it be not overdone nor under-done; the way to be certain when it is right is, to try it several times in glass while melting. If it makes it, when well purified, to swell, boil, and rise, it is properly calcined; if not, it requires longer time. This makes, according to the different proportions in which it is used, a sea-green, an emerald-green, or a turcoise colour.

Bras, by long calcination alone, and without any mixture, affords a fine blue or green colour for glass; but they have a method of calcining it also with powdered bismuth, so as to make it afford a red, a yellow, or a chalcedony colour, according to the quantity and other variations in the using it. The method of making the calcination is this: Cut thin plates of bras into small pieces with shears, and lay them stratum super stratum, with alternate beds of powdered sulphur, in a crucible; calcine this for 24 hours in a strong fire; then powder and sift the whole; and finally, expose this powder upon tiles for 12 days to a reverberating furnace; at the end of this time, powder it fine, and keep it for use. The glass makers have also a method of procuring a red powder from bras, by a more simple calcination, which serves them for many colours. The method of preparing it is this: They put small and thin plates of bras into the arches of the glass furnaces, and leave them there till they are sufficiently calcined, which the heat in that place, not being enough to melt them, does in great perfection. The calcined matter powdered, is of a dusky red, and requires no farther preparation.

Brass-Colour, one prepared by the braziers and colour-men to imitate bras. There are two sorts of it; the red bras or bronze, and the yellow or gilt bras; the latter is made only of copper-fillings, the smallest and brightest that can be found; with the former they mix some red ochre, finely pulverized; they are both used with varnish.—In order to make a fine bras that will not take any rust or verdigris, it must be dried with a chafing-dish of coals as soon as it is applied.—The finest bras-colour is made with powder bras imported from Germany, diluted into a varnish, made and used after the following manner: The varnish is composed of one pound four ounces of spirit of wine, two ounces of gum-lac, and two ounces of sandarac; these two last drugs are pulverized separately, and afterwards put to dissolve in spirit of wine, taking care to fill the bottle but half full. The varnish being made, you mix such quantity as you please of it with the pulverized bras, and apply it with a small brush to what you would bras over. But you must not mix too much at once, because the varnish being very apt to dry, you would not have time to employ it all soon enough; it is therefore better to make the mixture at several times. After this manner they bras over figures of plaster, which look as well as if they were of cast bras.

Brass Leaf is made of copper, beaten out into very thin plates, and afterwards rendered yellow. The German artists, particularly those of Nuremberg and Augsburg, are said to possess the best method of giving to these thin plates of copper a fine yellow colour like gold, by simply exposing them to the fumes of zinc, without any real mixture of it with the metal. These plates are cut into little pieces, and then beaten out fine like leaves of gold; after which they are put into books of coarse paper, and sold at a low price for the vulgar kinds of gilding. The parings or shreds of these very thin yellow leaves being well ground on a marble plate, are reduced to a powder similar to gold; which serves to cover, by means of gum-water or some other glutinous fluid, the surface of various mouldings or pieces of curious workmanship, giving them the appearance of real bronze, and even of fine gold, at a very trifling expense, because the gold colour of this metallic powder may be easily raised and improved by stirring it on a wide earthen basin over a slow fire.

Brass-Lump, a common name given by miners to the globular pyrites. See Pyrites.