Zinc smelting by distillation
AI-drafted · awaiting admin review
Was metallic zinc first produced on a large scale at Zawar in Rajasthan?
India first (well documented)Technology & engineering
Indian claim
At Zawar, near Udaipur, smelters produced metallic zinc by downward distillation in rows of clay retorts, on an industrial scale, centuries before Europe.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- Excavations by the Hindustan Zinc–British Museum–MS University project found banks of zinc distillation furnaces and tens of thousands of spent retorts.
- Radiocarbon dates from old mine timbers point to mining from the later first millennium BCE; zinc smelting by distillation is dated at least to the 9th century CE.
- ASM International named Zawar an International Historical Landmark in 1988.
- Indian texts such as the Rasaratnasamuccaya (c. 13th century) describe the distillation of zinc.
Commonly credited to
In Europe, William Champion of Bristol patented a zinc distillation process in 1738; China also produced zinc on a large scale from around the 16th century.
Evidence for the other claim
- Small amounts of zinc and brass were known earlier in the Greek and Roman world, but not by large-scale distillation.
What historians and scientists say
Zawar is the earliest known site of large-scale zinc production by distillation in the world, well before China and Europe. Some historians suggest Europe's process may have been influenced by knowledge of the Indian method.