ARGENT AN

n. ASr/je*n-tatn. From argentum, because of its resemblance to silver. Fr., a. mail lech or. Ger,, Argent an, Neusilber, Wei kupfer. Syn.: German silver, pack ‘ong. An alloy of copper 16 parts, zinc 3 to 10 parts. and nickel 4 to 12 parts, with traces of tin, iron, and lead, resembling silver in appearance and properties and applied to similar technical uses. White a. contains 4 parts of nickel, and the finest Chinese a. or electrum contains 8 parts. When silver-plated, a. is also called Peru sitver, China silver, and alpaca. The argyroid of Moreau, the argyrophan of Wolf, and semilargent are silver-plated alloys of similar composition. [B, 2, 38, 48.