44 D/S composite plantchet

Well they did have melting furnaces that they used for melting gold, silver, copper and nickel for creating alloys used in coinage, and pouring their own ingots which they then rolled. I would think if they could melt down copper or copper nickel alloys they could melt down brass. The real problem with working with brass is getting the final alloy to be the exact composition you want because due to the low boiling point of zinc. Copper melts at 1,984 degrees F, but zinc BOILS at 1,665 degrees F. Now the brass alloy has a lower melting point than copper but it is close to the boiling point of zinc. The problem is to control the temperature closely enough to melt the brass without boiling off the zinc, and then using the molten brass to DISSOLVE the copper being added to bring it up to 95% copper. (That's how they make brass alloys, they melt the zinc and then dissolve the copper into the zinc.) Once they have that done they simply pour the ingots and they're ready to roll.

 

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