Muntz Metal is a form of alpha-beta
brassBrass is any alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties. In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin. Despite this distinction, some types of brasses are called bronzes. Brass is a...
with about 60%
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
, 40%
zincZinc , also known as spelter, is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
and a trace of iron. It is named after George Fredrick Muntz, a metal-roller of
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Muntz commercialised the alloy following his patent of 1832, although one William Collins had patented a 56:44 alloy in 1800.
Its original use was as a replacement for the
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
lining placed on the bottom of boats as it maintained the anti-fouling abilities of the pure form.
Muntz Metal is a form of alpha-beta
brassBrass is any alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties. In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin. Despite this distinction, some types of brasses are called bronzes. Brass is a...
with about 60%
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
, 40%
zincZinc , also known as spelter, is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
and a trace of iron. It is named after George Fredrick Muntz, a metal-roller of
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Muntz commercialised the alloy following his patent of 1832, although one William Collins had patented a 56:44 alloy in 1800.
Its original use was as a replacement for the
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
lining placed on the bottom of boats as it maintained the anti-fouling abilities of the pure form. As it cost around two thirds of the price of pure copper and had identical properties for this application, it became the material of choice and Muntz made his fortune. Later it was used to sheathe the piles of piers in tropical seas, as a protection against teredo
shipwormShipworms are not worms at all, but rather a group of unusual saltwater clams with very reduced shells, notorious for boring into wooden structures that are immersed in sea water, such as piers, docks and wooden ships...
s, and in locomotive tubes.
Muntz Metal is still the term this form of brass is known by. It is a form of brass that must be worked hot and is used for machine parts that must be corrosion resistant.
After successful experimentation with the sheathing Muntz also took out a patent for bolts of the same composition and these also proved a success, for not only were they cheaper they were also very strong and lasted longer.
A notable use of Muntz Metal was in the hull of the
Cutty SarkThe Cutty Sark is a clipper ship. Built in 1869, she served as a merchant vessel , and then as a training ship until being put on public display in 1954. She is preserved in dry dock in Greenwich, London. However, the ship was badly damaged in a fire on 21 May 2007 while undergoing extensive...
.
Company history
Muntz started production in Water Street, Birmingham, but moved to Swansea in 1837. In 1842 he bought the French Walls Works in
SmethwickSmethwick is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. It is situated on the edge of the city of Birmingham, within the historic boundaries of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire....
, formerly the site of
James WattJames Watt FRS was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both the Kingdom of Great Britain and the world.-Biography:James Watt was born on 19 January 1736 in Greenock,...
Jr's ironworks. The site soon proved inadequate, and in 1850 a further were bought, on the other side of the Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Stour Valley Railway. Eventually as the business outgrew Muntz’s own rolling mill in Birmingham, he joined in partnership with Pascoe Grenfell and sons who produced it at their Swansea mill as ‘Muntz’s Patent Metal Company’. They and other partners then fixed the prices of the alloy at £18 per ton lower than the market price for the equivalent copper product, serving to establish Muntz Metal as the sheathing of choice where transport costs still kept it as an efficient competitor. As an example of their success in entering the market, 50 ships were metalled with Muntz Metal in 1837, over 100 in 1838, doubling in 1840 and doubling again by 1844.
With Muntz successfully supervising the manufacturing operations, by 1840 Muntz’s Patent Metal Company employed 30 men to smelt and roll the alloy and were producing 2,000 tons yearly. Three years later the Company had over 200 men producing 3-4000 tons yearly at £8 per ton profit. By then the Grenfells had left the partnership, for the agreement with Pascoe Grenfell & Sons had been terminated with some acrimony in 1842. When Muntz’s patent expired in 1846, they and others began making fastenings and sheathing to the Muntz patent at will.
Muntz died in 1857, to be succeeded by his eldest son, also called George Fredrick, who sold it in 1864 to a joint stock company, Muntz's Metal Co. Ltd. In 1921 the company was bought by Elliott's Metal Company, which became part of ICI's Imperial Metals division (now
IMI plcIMI plc , formerly Imperial Metal Industries, is a British based engineering company headquartered in Birmingham. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
) in 1928.
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