The History Of British Commerce From The Earliest Times Vol 1 Of 3 Classic Reprint

Author : George L. Craik
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330234563
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (345 download)

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Download or read book The History of British Commerce, From the Earliest Times, Vol. 1 of 3 written by George L. Craik and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-26 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The History of British Commerce, From the Earliest Times, Vol. 1 of 3 This composition was really what the Greeks called chalcos and the Romans aes, although these words have usually been improperly translated brass, which is compounded not of copper and tin, but of copper and zinc. There is no reason to suppose that zinc was at all known to the ancients; and, if so, brass, properly so called, was equally unknown to them. What is commonly called the brass of the Greeks and Romans, being, as we have said, a mixture of copper and tin, is not brass, but bronze. This is the material, not only of the ancient statues, but also of many of their other metallic articles both ornamental and useful. It was of this, for instance, that they fabricated the best of their mirrors and reflecting specula; for the composition, in certain proportions, is capable of taking a high polish, as well as of being hammered or filed to a sharp and hard edge in others. This also is the material of which so many of the Celtic antiquities are formed, and which on this account is sometimes called Celtic brass, although it might with as much propriety be called Greek brass, or Roman brass. In like manner the swords found at Cannæ, which are supposed to be Carthaginian, are of bronze, or a composition of copper and tin. Tin, too, is supposed, with much probability, to have been used by the Phoenicians at a very early period in those processes of dyeing cloth for which Tyre in particular was so famous. Solutions of tin in various acids are still applied as mordants for fixing colours in cloth. Tin is understood to be mentioned under the Hebrew term bedil, in the Book of Numbers; and, as all the other metals supposed to have been then known are enumerated in the same passage, it would be difficult to give another probable translation of the word. The lexicographers derive it from bedl, to separate; tin, they say, being a separating metal. This would carry the knowledge and use of tin back to a date nearly 1500 years antecedent to the commencement of our era. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.