Editing Zinc (section)

===Isolation===
[[File:Andreas Sigismund Marggraf-flip.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Andreas Sigismund Marggraf]] is given credit for first isolating pure zinc|alt=Picture of an old man head (profile). The man has a long face, short hair and tall forehead.]]
Metallic zinc was isolated in India by 1300 AD.<ref>{{cite book|last=Vaughan|first=L Brent |date=1897 |title=The Junior Encyclopedia Britannica A Reference Library of General Knowledge Volume III P-Z|location=Chicago |publisher=E. G. Melven & Company|article=Zincography}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://science.marshall.edu/castella/chm448/elements3.pdf|title=Transition Metal Elements|author=Castellani, Michael|access-date=October 14, 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010201408/http://science.marshall.edu/castella/chm448/elements3.pdf|archive-date=October 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Habib |first1=Irfan |editor-last=Chatopadhyaya |editor-first=D. P. |date=2011 |title=Economic History of Medieval India, 1200–1500 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA86 |location=New Delhi |publisher=Pearson Longman |page=86 |isbn=978-81-317-2791-1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414222551/https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA86 |archive-date=April 14, 2016 }}</ref> Before it was isolated in Europe, it was imported from India in about 1600 CE.<ref name="zinc-eng" /> [[Postlewayt]]'s ''Universal Dictionary'', a contemporary source giving technological information in Europe, did not mention zinc before 1751 but the element was studied before then.<ref name="Craddock" /><ref>{{Cite journal|title=Ancient Lead and Zinc Mining in Rajasthan, India|author1=Willies, Lynn|author2=Craddock, P. T.|author3=Gurjar, L. J.|author4=Hegde, K. T. M. |volume=16|issue=2, Mines and Quarries|date=1984|journal=World Archaeology|jstor=124574|pages=222–233|doi=10.1080/00438243.1984.9979929}}</ref>

Flemish [[metallurgist]] and [[alchemist]] [[P. M. de Respour]] reported that he had extracted metallic zinc from zinc oxide in 1668.<ref name="Emsley2001p502" /> By the start of the 18th century, [[Étienne François Geoffroy]] described how zinc oxide condenses as yellow crystals on bars of iron placed above zinc ore that is being smelted.<ref name="Emsley2001p502" /> In Britain, [[John Lane (metallurgist)|John Lane]] is said to have carried out experiments to smelt zinc, probably at [[Landore]], prior to his bankruptcy in 1726.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Roberts|first=R. O.|date=1951|title=Dr John Lane and the foundation of the non-ferrous metal industry in the Swansea valley|journal=Gower|publisher=Gower Society|issue=4|page=19}}</ref>

In 1738 in Great Britain, [[William Champion (metallurgist)|William Champion]] patented a process to extract zinc from calamine in a vertical [[retort]]-style smelter.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Comyns|first=Alan E.|title=Encyclopedic Dictionary of Named Processes in Chemical Technology|edition=3rd|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-0-8493-9163-7|date=2007|page=71|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jlq-ckWvQSQC}}</ref> His technique resembled that used at Zawar zinc mines in [[Rajasthan]], but no evidence suggests he visited the Orient.<ref name="zinc-eng">{{Cite journal|first=Rhys|last=Jenkins|title=The Zinc Industry in England: the early years up to 1850|journal=Transactions of the Newcomen Society|volume=25|date=1945|pages=41–52|doi=10.1179/tns.1945.006}}</ref> Champion's process was used through 1851.<ref name="iza" />

German chemist [[Andreas Sigismund Marggraf|Andreas Marggraf]] normally gets credit for isolating pure metallic zinc in the West, even though Swedish chemist Anton von Swab had distilled zinc from calamine four years previously.<ref name="iza" /> In his 1746 experiment, Marggraf heated a mixture of calamine and charcoal in a closed vessel without copper to obtain a metal.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marggraf |title=Experiences sur la maniere de tirer le Zinc de sa veritable miniere, c'est à dire, de la pierre calaminaire |journal=Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Berlin |date=1746 |volume=2 |pages=49–57 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015026296437&view=1up&seq=93 |trans-title=Experiments on a way of extracting zinc from its true mineral; i.e., the stone calamine |language=fr}}</ref><ref name="Weeks1933p21" /> This procedure became commercially practical by 1752.<ref>{{harvnb|Heiserman|1992|p=122}}</ref>