History of bronze figures

China's book Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji during the Warring States Period summarized the experience of smelting bronze and described the different proportions of copper and tin used in bronze casting of different objects: "Gold has six qi (prescription). Its gold (copper) and tin are six points in one, that is, the gas of Zhong Ding; Its gold and tin are divided into one, that is, the axe Jin Qi; Its gold and tin are divided into one, that is, the gas of Geji; Two-thirds of its gold and tin are in one place, which is called the gas of the big blade; Its gold and tin are in the second place, that is, cutting and killing arrows (arrows) together; Suk Kim is half, called a mirror (mirror) (using a mirror to gather light to make a fire). " This shows that more than 3000 years ago, the working people in our country have realized that different bronzes have different requirements for performance, and the proportion of metal components used to cast bronzes should also be different.

Because bronze is hard and easy to melt, it can be well cast and formed, and it is stable in the air, even in the Iron Age after the Bronze Age, it has not lost its use value. For example, around 280 BC, the bronze sun god stood in Rhodes Harbor on Rhodes Island in the Aegean Sea of Europe, with a height of 46 meters, which was higher than an adult's finger.

The working people in ancient China first used natural copper compounds to smelt copper by wet method, which is the origin of wet technology and an invention in the history of world chemistry. The Book of Huainanzi Wanbi in the Western Han Dynasty records that once Zeng Qing got iron, he turned it into copper. Zeng Qing is copper sulfate. This method is expressed by modern chemical formula:

Copper sulfate+iron = ferrous sulfate+copper

According to western legend, Cyprus in the ancient Mediterranean was the origin of copper, so its Latin name was CUPRUM, and its element symbol was Cu. Both COPPER in English and CUIVRE in Latin come from this place.

Copper has unique electrical conductivity, which cannot be replaced by aluminum. In today's era of the development of electronic industry and household appliances, this ancient metal has regained its youth. Copper conductor is being widely used. From the perspective of foreign products, the copper wire required for the electronic and electrical accessories of an ordinary family car is as long as 1 km, and the rails of French high-speed trains use 10 ton of copper per km, which accounts for 2% of the total weight of Boeing 747-200 aircraft.