pot metaln.
/ˈpɒt ˌmɛtl/, U.S. /ˈpɑt ˌmɛdl/ 1. Metal used for making pots.† b. A kind of cast iron. Obsolete.
a. Any of various alloys of copper and lead (often also containing both zinc and tin); (also) a low-grade type of brass.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > alloy > [noun] > other alloys of lead
pot metal1601
type-metal1800
shot-metal1875
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. xxxiv. viii. 505 This brasse..is found also in other mines of mettall, like as the pott-brasse Caldarium...That..which is found in the mines of other mettalls, by art refined, differeth from the foresaid pot-mettal [Fr. se manye..autrement que la rosette, L. distat a caldario].
1602 in J. M. Bestall & D. V. Fowkes Chesterfield Wills & Inventories 1521–1603 (1977) 287 For pott metell..for panne metell..for puter.
1675 in M. Cash Devon Inventories 16th & 17th Cent. (Devon & Cornwall Record Soc.) New Ser. 11 (1966) 139 56lb in brass Ritles..194lb in brass potmetle..1 pair of pewter Candelsticks.
1693 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 17 736 Bell-metal being Copper and Tin, Pot-metal Copper and Lead. About 20l. of Lead is usually put into 100l. of Pot-metal.
1735 J. Barrow Dict. Polygraphicum II. at Looking Glass This table, on which the glass is to be run, is made of pot-metal, in length about 9 foot, and proportionable in breadth.
1832 T. Carlyle Reminisc. (1881) I. 38 Tinkers also..making pot metal,..often came upon the scene.
1855 F. Overman Treat. Metall. (ed. 3) vii. 683 Copper and lead unite only to a certain extent: 3 lead and 8 copper is ordinary pot metal.
1882 Cent. Mag. July 370/2 If you want a trenchant blade like Thoreau, you must leave the pot-metal out and look for something bluer and finer.
1922 Amer. Anthropologist 24 131 This nail was not a true bronze, containing, as it did, only a small amount of tin, but what was called ‘pot metal,’ an alloy of copper and lead.
1958 Jrnl. Econ. Hist. 18 7 The English put ‘pot metal’ instead of iron into their rails.
1995 Farmers Weekly 31 Mar. 91/4 Zinc-rich ‘pot metal’—light die castings, etc—can be joined, though their lower melting points call for extreme care.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > iron > [noun] > type of iron > cast iron > other types of cast iron
grey iron1665
white iron1665
run metal1741
white cast iron1792
mottled iron1836
tender-floss1839
pot metal1854
semi-steel1858
silicon iron1878
white-heart1911
white-heart1928
1854 Sci. Amer. 29 Apr. 258/3 Cast-iron may acquire, by tempering, a coercive force sufficiently great to allow it to be strongly and permanently magnetized. The gray iron is the best for this purpose. The pot metal is too brittle, and the first quality of cast-iron gives but moderate results.
a1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. II. 1777/1 Pot-metal,..a grade of cast-iron suitable for casting hollow ware.
2. Stained glass that has been coloured while molten, so that the colour pervades the whole substance. More fully pot-metal glass.
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society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > ornamental art and craft > ornamental glass-work > [noun] > glass-colouring > glass-staining > stained glass
stained glass1791
pot metal1817
1817 Times 5 June 3/5 Pot-metal glass, that is, glass formed into one colour in its making.
1832 G. R. Porter Treat. Manuf. Porcelain & Glass 290 Small pieces of glass coloured throughout during the process of its original manufacture..called by artists pot metal.
1898 Daily News 6 Jan. 6/1 Stained glass is coloured ‘in the pot’, by means of metallic oxides; hence ‘pot metal,’ as the technical name for this kind of glass.
1964 H. Hodges Artifacts iii. 62 In making decorated glass windows the coloured panes might be of pot-metal.
1991 Stained Glass Winter 265 Before the closing, the range theoretically included 300 colors, including deep-toned pot metals.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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