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Summary A study of the metallurgy and manufacturing techniques of a group of eight astrolabes (seven from Lahore, one attributed to India) using non-destructive methods has produced the earliest evidence for systematic use of high-zinc (α + β) brass. To produce this alloy, the brass industry supplying the Lahore instrument makers must have co-melted metallic copper and zinc. This brass-making technology was previously believed to have been developed on an industrial scale in the nineteenth century in Europe. This work hypothesizes that this technology was used in Lahore on an industrial scale as early as ad 1601. In addition, this work hypothesizes that the α + β brass alloy was used specifically for its ease in manufacturing the thin sheet brass required for astrolabe-component manufacture.

The phase formation sequences of Si-P alloy thin films with P concentrations between 20 and 44 at.% have been studied. The samples were annealed at progressively higher temperatures and the newly formed phases were identified both after each annealing step by ex-situ conventional X-ray diffraction (XRD) and continuously by in-situ synchrotron XRD. It was found that Si was the only phase to form in a sample with 20at.%P since the evaporation of P at the crystallization temperature prevented phosphides from forming. For a sample with 30at.%P, the Si12P5 phase formed prior to the SiP phase. For samples with 35 and 44at.%P, the formation of SiP preceded the formation of the Si12.P5 phase. The experimentally determined phase formation sequences were successfully predicted by a proposed model. According to the model, the first and second crystalline phases to form are those with the lowest and next-lowest crystallization temperatures of the competing compounds predicted by the Gibbs free-energy diagram.