> as lemmas

1577 W. Harrison Hist. Descr. Islande Brit. ii. vii. f. 81^v/2, in R. Holinshed Chron. I Of these [peeces of fine masonry] also some were of porphirite stone, some of dyuers kyndes of marble,..beside many curious deuises of harde mettall.

1651 A. Ross Arcana Microcosmi ii. ix. 210 Who can give a reason why the scratching upon brass or other hard metals, should distemper the teeth; and in some men force urine?

1729 in R. Renwick Extracts Rec. Stirling (1889) II. 205 One M^cLaren, who was..incarcerat in the tolbooth..for offering to sell hard mettle instead of silver to some people in this burgh.

1734 S.-Carolina Gaz. 2 Nov. 3/2 Just imported... Best hard mettle and common pewter, best Welsh Cottons, [etc.].

1817 Gentlemen's Mag. July 8/2 I laid the top stone of the new Steeple..and in a cavity cut for that purpose, placed two pieces of hard-metal pewter, each five inches square.

1845 Encycl. Metrop. VIII. 655/2 The tin is first converted into what is called hard metal or alloy, 75 parts copper and 25 parts tin.

1895 J. M. Thomson & A. G. Bloxam Bloxam's Chem. (ed. 8) 411 In preparing this alloy, it is usual to melt the tin in the first place with twice its weight of copper, when a white, hard, and extremely brittle alloy (hard metal) is obtained.

1911 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 339/1 Hard metal (96 parts of tin, 8 of antimony and 2 of copper), a mixture very closely resembling..‘Britannia metal’.

1992 C. Hull Pewter 4/2 Antimony was added as an extra hardening agent to fine metal in the second half of the seventeenth century and the resulting alloy was termed Superfine Hard Metal or French Metal.