Bronze.Patina.
Copper85·9857·27
Tin12·648·40
Lead1·091·02
Zinc0·500·46
Irontrace1·61
Lime (CaO) 0·13
Chlorine 5·35
Carbonic acid (CO2) 4·25
Alumina 9·86
Water 4·40
Oxygen 7·25
100·21100·00

So too at a meeting of the Association for the Promotion of Industries in Prussia, Elster[41] referred to the existence of chlorine in patina, and regarded this as a proof that the patina upon antique bronzes was actually intentional on the part of the manufacturers.

E. Priwoznik[ [42] has described a rare kind of patina which formed a coating 5 to 7 mm. in thickness composed of three layers consisting of a reniform or botryoidal incrustation of an indigo blue colour. The uppermost layer which was also the thickest consisted of 33·22% of sulphur and 66·77% of copper, and was therefore cupric sulphide, CuS (which is known in the mineral world as Indigo Copper or Covelline). The second layer, which existed only in patches, was 0·5 mm. in thickness and of a blackish colour; it consisted of cuprous sulphide, Cu2S with 15% of tin. The third layer which, like the second, was incomplete, formed a fine black powder, and consisted of 59·8 Cu2S, 23·2 Sn and 3·4% of water. The patina had been produced by the action of soluble sulphides or of sulphuretted hydrogen upon the copper, while the sulphur compounds themselves had resulted from the decay of organic matter in the soil in which the bronze was found.

Mitzopulos[ [43] described the green patina of the copper alloys found in Mycene as malachite and atacamite upon a reddish layer of cuprous oxide.

Another analysis of patina was made by J. Schuler[44]. The bronze in question had a grey outer layer, which passed gradually into a light green friable layer 2 mm. in thickness. A detached portion of this layer of patina, dried in a desiccator over concentrated sulphuric acid with a loss in weight of 9·44%, gave the following analysis:

Tin oxide49·13%
Copper oxide22·46%
Lead oxide3·53%
Iron oxide and aluminium oxide1·75%
Silica and insoluble matter6·16%
Carbonic acid determined directly6·35%
Carbonic acid determined by ignition9·15%
Water determined by ignition14·43%

Schuler calculates from these figures that the patina contains:

60·92%H2SnO3
34·55%CuCO3, CuH2O2
4·51%(PbCO3)2PbH2O2.

The analysis of the bronze itself was as follows:

Copper89·78%
Tin6·83%
Lead1·85%
Cobalt and Nickel0·90%
Iron0·28%