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RR 2000/202 Paktong: the Chinese Alloy in Europe, 1680-1820 Keith Pinn Antique Collectors' Club Woodbridge 1999 190 pp. ISBN I SS149 324 7 L45.00 Keywords Metal processing, Europe, History
This is a fascinating book on a rare subject. Paktong is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc discovered and used in China many years ago. Examples were first seen by western travellers in the seventeenth century, but the silver-coloured ingredient, nickel, was not discovered by Europeans until the following century. As the sub-title suggests, the earliest use in the western world dates from about 1680, and the golden age lasted until about 1820. One of the earliest Britons who developed paktong was Matthew Boulton, the celebrated engineer. Boulton (1728-1809) and his friend John Fothergill, built a metal...