The resulting brasses, produced by heating a mixture of copper and calamine to a high temperature for several hours (allowing zinc vapor to distill from the ores and permeate the metallic copper), contained a significant amount of slag material resulting from the non-zinc components of calamine.
It is likely that Indian brass manufacturers had developed more advanced techniques some centuries earlier.
[citation needed] The area around La Calamine, now Kelmis, in Belgium, was the source of much of the medieval brass of northern Europe.
A plaque at Tintern Abbey claims that the well-known brassworks at this site began in 1568.
c. 30), further works were built near Bristol, where brass production became a major industry in the 18th century.