08-12-2020, 11:13 AM | #1 | |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Kentucky, USA
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Low Tech Value of Zinc
In GURPS Low Tech Companion 3 (p. 22) it states:
Quote:
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08-12-2020, 11:56 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: Low Tech Value of Zinc
As far as a quick search show, the only prices for zinc are in LTC3 p 22 (generic price for soft metals such as copper, zinc, lead as raw material) and in Pyramid 87 p 17 (also generic price for soft metals as cargo)
And in Pyramid 119 p36, discussing the relatives values of metal in Cidri (but with a note that it is close to medieval earth ratios) |
08-12-2020, 12:01 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: earth....I think.
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Re: Low Tech Value of Zinc
What you quoted was only an example for pricing of one material.
Same page, beginning of that paragraph: Quote:
This assumes they are all readily available. Otherwise the GM will have to adjust the price for each individual material based on what they want. For example, for a Fantasy setting, you can make iron more rare, bringing the price up from $6.90 to $13.80. You can also change the prices based on locations. Maybe a city is located near a copper deposit, making the price there as low as $1.20 per lbs for it. |
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08-12-2020, 01:02 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Low Tech Value of Zinc
It doesn't appear that metallic zinc was produced in bulk before early TL 4, though occasional older artifacts are found and it's possible to produce zinc brass without metallic zinc (e.g. Calamine brass.
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08-12-2020, 01:09 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: Low Tech Value of Zinc
Earlier sources don't differentiate clearly between brass and bronze. I would use the same effective cost for zinc, although - yes - it wasn't produced in metallic form until 1688.
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08-12-2020, 01:31 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Low Tech Value of Zinc
To the best of my knowledge, zinc was not recognized as a metal at TL1-3. The traditional list of metals is silver, mercury, copper, gold, iron, tin, and lead, corresponding to the planets of traditional astrology. The history that I've read has bronze being made by alloying metallic copper with metallic tin, but brass by putting zinc ore into copper. So I don't think there would be a known price for zinc as a metal.
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08-12-2020, 01:54 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: Low Tech Value of Zinc
Quote:
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“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius Last edited by Anders; 08-12-2020 at 01:57 PM. |
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08-12-2020, 02:06 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Low Tech Value of Zinc
Wikipedia has an okay blurb on ancient use of zinc. Does appear that it was allowed into brass directly from ores, though might have appeared in limited quantities earlier.
Separately from this is why? I can't think of any particular low-tech purpose where you'd want relatively pure zinc, I doubt galvanzing was possible all that much before it was actually done. |
08-12-2020, 02:50 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Kentucky, USA
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Re: Low Tech Value of Zinc
Quote:
It's just been one of those things that sticks in my mind. I've also discovered that the chinese used nickel enough to make cupronickel coins around 1400 BC (isolated in Europe around 1751)but its debatable if they knew what they had. So now my list of ancient metals that will annoy me is zinc, mercury and nickel.
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08-12-2020, 04:25 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: The deep dark haunted woods
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Re: Low Tech Value of Zinc
Except for it's uses in electrical technology and to galvanize metals, there aren't a lot of uses outside of alloys.
So unless you're doing a sort of steampunk or dieselpunk, there's not a lot of low-tech uses.
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