The rest of the silver jewelry is cast solid brass or zinc that's dipped in silver and then lacquer finished to prevent tarnishing.
It exhibits considerable lustre and is not subject to tarnishing on exposure to normal air.
It is, in fact, admitted that some of the glasses, most useful optically, the dense barium crown glasses, which are so widely used in modern photographic lenses, cannot be produced entirely free either from noticeable colour or from numerous small bubbles, while the chemical nature of these glasses is so sensitive that considerable care is required to protect the surfaces of lenses made from them if serious tarnishing is to be avoided.
The process will probably be abandoned as soon as the tarnishing of the metal during rolling and annealing can be avoided.
The mineral is especially liable to surface alteration, tarnishing with beautiful iridescent colours; a blue colour usually predominates, owing probably to the alteration of the chalcopyrite to covellite (CuS).
