Sometimes there will be copper scrap in our home, such as copper wires are not used, such as the generator on the tractor at home is not needed, and these copper scraps will be sold by us.
But when selling, the person who collects the waste opens his mouth brass and shuts up the red copper, anyway, the price of red copper is expensive, and the price of brass is cheap.
A copper classification down, he is not bothered, we are annoyed, give money, don't classify with here, make a headache.
Why is copper divided into brass and red copper? What is the difference between these two types of copper? Are there only two classifications of copper? If there are only these two classifications, then what do the bronzes unearthed in ancient times belong to?
The black sister-in-law herself has been exposed to a lot of scrap copper, and at the beginning she only simply distinguished brass and red copper by color. Looking at red is red copper, the price is more expensive, looking at yellow is brass, the price is cheaper than red copper.
However, people are most afraid of curiosity. For example, my personal curiosity is particularly heavy, and there are many interests, and most of them are strange interests. Sometimes it's okay, and I wonder why copper is more expensive than brass? Isn't it all copper? But since it is expensive, it must have a noble reason, what is the truth in this?
Today we will talk about the difference between brass and red copper, and then talk about what ancient bronze is.
I.: What is the difference between brass and red copper?
Why is red copper more expensive than brass? Is it noble because its color is red?
Of course not, the metals themselves do not distinguish between rich and poor, their value is given by people, and the fundamental determination of their value depends on the complexity of their process and their role. So, what is the difference between brass and red copper?
First of all, red copper, from a metal point of view, only red copper belongs to real copper, that is to say, red copper is pure copper, and red copper is pure copper.
The melting point of red copper is 1083 degrees, and when the copper ore attached to the copper element is mined, it is refined in the sulfide cave mine.
The refining process of copper is similar to that of steelmaking, but we are talking about a step process, and the raw materials and methods used in the two are completely different.
For example, pig iron needs to enter the "converter" to remove some impurities after it is secondarily transformed into molten iron. After the high-grade copper ore after being smelted by furnace fire sulfur, the resulting melt flow is also sent to the converter for blowing to obtain crude copper.
The two are actually similar here. However, there are many kinds of furnaces for refining copper ore, such as reflectory furnaces, electric furnaces, and so on. The coarse copper from the converter is sent to another furnace to remove impurities and refine, resulting in pure copper with almost 100% purity.
This has always been the most traditional copper smelting method, known as fire copper smelting, is now the most widely used copper smelting method.
One of its first requirements is the need to reach the melting point, in the past manual era, as well as the past backward era, it is not easy to refine such copper.
However, the value of copper is never distinguished by melting point.
So, does brass have a low melting point? Not low! Its melting point is 1193 degrees, which is much higher than red copper, that is, pure copper. Therefore, their value is not determined by the level of melting point.
Brass is actually synthetic copper doped with other metals, and it will be doped with many other metals to achieve the user's purpose. The simplest and most common brass is made by doping zinc, which is called ordinary brass. When there are more than two metallic elements, it is called special brass.
Therefore, we can also call brass a copper alloy.
To sum up: red copper is pure copper, because the surface is attached to a layer of oxide film, so it is also called copper.
Here we need to pay attention to it, red copper and copper and pure copper are a kind of copper, the most common name is red copper, its purity can reach more than ninety-nine percent, it is not exaggerated to say that pure copper.
Brass is a copper alloy, it is mixed with other metals to make, its purity and red copper is not comparable, so its value is not as good as red copper.
For example, if we refine the scrap copper and add other metal elements, we can get more brass. If brass wants to be refined into red copper, it must first remove other metals inside.
Ordinary brass needs to remove zinc, and special brass needs to remove more, so only less copper can be obtained.
Now you know why people who go to your house to collect waste say that red copper is expensive and brass is cheap, right?
II.: What is copper in ancient bronze?
You can't imagine how clever the ancients were, because you can't understand how they came up with the idea of smelting bronze. That is, how did this kind of cognition, this kind of thinking come from? How did they know about bronze smelting? It's amazing!
Bronze is the earliest alloy in the history of metal smelting and casting.
Seeing the alloy, everyone may be able to understand, didn't we say above, in the refining of copper, other metals were added, so it became brass, and bronze is actually the same.
There is no way to do this, because the melting point is very high, and most importantly, its texture does not meet the requirements of casting, such as the poor fluidity of the liquid after it is melted, and the ancient creation of those delicate works of art requires good fluidity.
It should be noted that the presence of bronze is convenient for casting, and the smelting melting point of red copper can be achieved at that time, but it does not meet their casting requirements, so it is necessary to seek a requirement to achieve casting.
That is to say, one day, when an ancient craftsman was in a daze at pure copper, he suddenly thought of putting other metals in it to reduce its melting point and increase its casting. He did, he really got a suitable metal, and that was bronze.
Isn't that magical? Isn't that shocking?
Back to the point, bronze is not red copper because it is not pure copper. Bronze is also not brass because it puts in a different solubilized metal. For example, brass adds zinc and other metals, while bronze adds lead or tin.
Why did modern brass smelting add zinc, while the ancients added lead or tin? Isn't the color of the yellow more representative of royal majesty?
It is not that the ancients did not add such a thing, but after adding it, it did not meet the casting requirements they wanted, and it did not make them more successful in casting, while lead and tin could do it. As for the lower melting point after joining, it is only a side effect after meeting the casting requirements, and it is not too important.
Therefore, ancient bronze was mostly an alloy of copper and tin or lead. Doped together in proportion to make the melting point lower and more malleable, and the strength is also higher. Bronze is stronger than copper.
For example, adding twenty-five percent of tin to it, which was originally 1083 degrees melting point will be reduced to 800 degrees, and the plasticity will be strengthened, making bronze a special alloy that exists specifically for casting.
It's amazing, I don't know how many generations of craftsmen have studied and perfected, this is running from zero to one, it is a great innovation.
To sum up: bronze is not red copper, nor brass, but a cast copper alloy. It is a cast copper alloy obtained by ancient craftsmen when they sought a metal with strength comparable to copper, but more plastic than copper, and put it into practice.
III.: Brass and red copper are widely used in modern times. For example, brass casting out of a variety of pipe fittings, valves, a variety of connectors and so on, mainly brass has wear resistance.
Red copper is industrial pure copper, because of its good electrical and thermal conductivity, it is widely used in wires, cables, electric sparks and so on.
Bronze, as a cast copper alloy, no longer seems to exist in modern times.
However, Hei Jie still has to say that this is the most important metallurgical invention, the emergence of bronze represents the development of culture to a brilliant degree, the mainland is the first country to use bronze, and in the distant ancient times, bronze cast a variety of complex works of art that make modern people stunned.
When we talk about the difference between copper today, we are actually talking about the underlying. What is the underlying? What is invention and inheritance? Isn't that what it is?