Brass
an alloy of copper and zinc, of a bright yellow color, hard, ductile, and malleable. The best brass consists of two parts by weight of copper to one of zinc. The proportions of copper and zinc vary. Ordinary brass is a yellow alloy of copper and 28 to 34 per cent. of zinc. The density of cast brass is 7.8 to 8.4; that of brass wire 8.54. It is harder and yet more fusible than copper, more sonorous and not so good a conductor of heat.
It is said that when the Roman Consul, Mummius, after capturing the celebrated Grecian city of Corinth, barbarously burnt the place to the ground, in B. C. 146, various metals, fused in the conflagration, became united into a compound or alloy, called from the circumstances now stated, Corinthian brass.