Note 160 — Chapter IV · THE PROTO-CHALCITIC OR COPPER AGE OF WEAPONS.

I reported to the Athenæum (August 16, 1879) this ‘recovery’ of the lost Egyptian (and Peruvian) secret for tempering copper and bronze, which had long been denied by metallurgists. Copper hardened by alloy is described in the Archæologia, by Governor Pownall. Mr. Assay-Master Alchorn found in it particles of iron, which may, however, have been in the ore, and some admixture of zinc, but neither silver nor gold.