Latten in the context of "Calamine (mineral)"

Copper alloys are metal alloys that have copper as their principal component. They have high resistance against corrosion. Of the large number of different types, the best known traditional types are bronze, where tin is a significant addition, and brass, using zinc instead. Both of these are imprecise terms. Latten is a further term, mostly used for coins with a very high copper content. Today the term "copper alloy" tends to be substituted for all of these, especially by museums.

Copper deposits are abundant in most parts of the world (globally 70 parts per million), and it has therefore always been a relatively cheap metal. By contrast, tin is relatively rare (2 parts per million), and in Europe and the Mediterranean region, even in prehistoric times, it had to be traded considerable distances and was expensive, sometimes virtually unobtainable. Zinc is even more common at 75 parts per million but is harder to extract from its ores. Bronze with the ideal percentage of tin was therefore expensive, and the proportion of tin was often reduced to save cost. The discovery and exploitation of the Bolivian tin belt in the 19th century made tin far cheaper, although forecasts for future supplies are less positive.

A trip hammer, also known as a tilt hammer or helve hammer, is a massive powered hammer. Traditional uses of trip hammers include pounding, decorticating and polishing of grain in agriculture. In mining, trip hammers were used for crushing metal ores into small pieces, although a stamp mill was more usual for this. In finery forges they were used for drawing out blooms made from wrought iron into more workable bar iron. They were also used for fabricating various articles of wrought iron, latten (an early form of brass), steel and other metals.

One or more trip hammers were set up in a forge, also known variously as a hammer mill, hammer forge or hammer works. The hammers were usually raised by a cam and then released to fall under the force of gravity. Historically, trip hammers were often powered hydraulically by a water wheel.

A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial once found through Western Europe, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the pavement, and thus forming no obstruction in the space required for the services of the church, they speedily came into general use, and continued to be a favourite style of sepulchral memorial for three centuries.