The Making of Brass.
The brass of commerce, rolled in sheets, drawn in rods and wire, and cast in ingots ready for the founder, is, as it has been stated, a composite metal, very well suited to many purposes. During the sixteenth century much progress was made in metal-founding. The Worshipful Company of Founders was busy. Many "battery" works were set up in England, and there brass was hammered or battered into shape. Thus brass-workers were engaged in making useful pots and pans, now in their much worn state eagerly sought after by the collector. Some worked with the ladle and crucible, others with the hammer and anvil or wood block.
The earlier brass was composed of copper mixed with calamine melted in a crucible, a process which continued until the more modern form of melting metallic zinc with copper was understood. Champion's process, by which this newer method was carried out, was kept secret for some time, but about the middle of the eighteenth century it was generally understood and the process of stamping brass became a common one in the Birmingham district.