Short answers, pulled from the story.
Bronze is an alloy made primarily of copper, commonly with about 12 to 12.5 percent tin. It often includes other metals such as aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc, and sometimes non-metals like phosphorus or metalloids like arsenic or silicon. Modern bronze is typically about 88 percent copper and 12 percent tin.
The earliest tin-copper-alloy artifact has been dated to around 4650 BCE, at a Vinca culture site in Plocnik in present-day Serbia. It is believed to have been smelted from a natural tin-copper ore called stannite.
The Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age after a serious disruption of the tin trade. Population migrations around 1200 to 1100 BCE reduced the shipment of tin around the Mediterranean and from Britain, limiting supplies and raising prices. As iron working improved, iron became cheaper and better in quality, and smiths learned to make steel, which is stronger and harder than bronze.
Yes, bronze is generally harder than wrought iron. Bronze has a Vickers hardness of 60 to 258, while wrought iron has a hardness of 30 to 80. Steel, however, is stronger and harder than bronze and holds a sharper edge longer.
Bronze medals are awarded for third place partly because of the Greek mythological trio of gold, silver, and bronze representing the first three Ages of Man. Bronze was first adopted for third place at a sports event at the 1904 Summer Olympics. At the 1896 event silver went to winners and bronze to runners-up.
Bronze is an alloy of copper with tin, while brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Some metals commonly called bronze, such as the 13th-century Benin Bronzes, are in fact brass. Museums increasingly use the term copper alloy to avoid disputes over naming.
Bronze is used for bells in the form of bell metal, typically about 23 percent tin, and nearly all professional cymbals are made from bronze. It also forms the windings on steel and nylon strings for the double bass, piano, harpsichord, and guitar, and shapes the tone rings of many professional banjos.