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Does anyone recognize these scales and know if they're copper alloy or could they possibly be iron? Because I was looking at the photo today wondered if they might actually be iron- notice that while the scales themselves are brown, the connector rings are green. Copper alloy can certainly be brown and pitted the way these scales are, but then why would the rings be different?
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I think there are iron. Probably the rings are made in copper alloy because were more easy to make it in plates, cut in narrow strips and then make the rings.
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The scales look like iron to me as well.
Derek D. Estabrook
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Looking at size and hole pattern, I'd guess that photo shows 4 different pieces.
Wires on the two right examples have been rubbed down to expose clean yellow colored metal. There also appears to be some spots of similar color exposed from under the corrosion on the one on the upper right.
Couldn't someone suppose that this is a copper based alloy, showing through a corroded layer of tinning?
Marcus Julius Germanus
m.k.a. Brian Biesemeyer
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Reasonable conjectures all, but does anyone actually know what the main material of these scales is or even which museum they're in so that perhaps further research on the issue would be possible?
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Those scales looks like rusted iron (links looks like oxidized copper or bronze\\brass) protected by a layer of varnish. If they are from a museum in Eastern Europe, it is most likely this was the method of protection that was used.
Romulus Stoica
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