ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Dutch metal

Dear little friend, have you ever heard of Dutch metal? It's actually not a type of music, but it's a type of metal that people in the Netherlands used to make a long time ago. Dutch metal is also known as "bronze powder" or "gold powder," and it's made up of mostly copper and zinc.

Do you know what metal is? It's a hard, shiny material that can be used to make things like tools, toys, and jewelry. When copper and zinc are mixed together, they create a metal that looks like gold and can be polished to look even shinier.

Now, in the past, people in the Netherlands used Dutch metal to make decorative items like picture frames, buttons, and even some musical instruments. They liked using it because it looked like gold, but it wasn't as expensive as real gold. Plus, it was easier to work with than other metals like gold or silver.

To make Dutch metal, people would first melt down the copper and zinc together. Then, they would pour the melted metal onto a flat surface, like a table or a plate, and let it cool. After that, they would scrape off the thin layer of metal that had formed on the surface and crush it up into a fine powder.

This powder could be used to decorate other objects by mixing it with a sticky substance and then painting it onto the surface. The end result would be a shiny, gold-like surface that would fool anyone into thinking it was real gold!

So, that's the story of Dutch metal, my little friend. It's a type of metal made by mixing copper and zinc together, and people in the Netherlands used it to make pretty things that looked like gold. Cool, huh?
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