11. 
On the Alloys of Copper and Zinc. 
By FRANK H. STORER. 
(Communicated November 9, 1859.) 
Tuis research was undertaken in order to ascertain what, if any, definite chemical 
compounds could be detected among the alloys of copper and zinc. 
Several chemists had already been led to believe in the existence of two or more 
definite alloys, and at the commencement of my own labors I was strongly inclined 
to accept this view. A more extended investigation, however, has convinced me 
that no such definite compounds exist. On the contrary, I am confident that all the 
alloys of copper and zinc are simply isomorphous mixtures of the two metals, capable, 
as I shall proceed to show, of crystallizing at any point, from copper with only a 
trace of zinc, down to alloys containing but thirty per cent of copper, or even less, 
under favorable circumstances. 
The misconceptions of previous observers* have evidently arisen either from the 
great tendency to separate into layers, instead of immediately forming a homogeneous 
mixture, which the metals exhibit when fused together; or from certain striking 
* T must in this connection refer to, and except, the valuable memoir of Karsten (vid. Karsten u. v. 
Dechen's Archiv für Mineralogie, u. s. w. 1839, XII. 385), whose conclusions in regard to these alloys 
appear to be perfectly correct, with the exception of a few unimportant details. As is the case with 
the able research of the elder Mallet, the details of which are to be found only in the Report of the 
Tenth (Glasgow) Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, p. 258, the very 
meagre abstracts of this memoir which are given in the chemical journals and text-books fail to convey a 
correct idea of the results which have been obtained, — a fact which may serve to explain the ignorance 
which has been exhibited in regard to them by subsequent experimenters. 
