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Copper

Copper names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.

Copper a hard, reddish metal

Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

a hard, reddish metal. Pure copper is one of the chemical elements. Symbol, Cu., atomic weight, 63.6; density, 8.9. Copper is one of the most useful metals. It is rolled or hammered into thin sheets, and may be drawn into slender wire of great strength. A copper rod one square inch in section is capable of sustaining a weight of 80,000 or even 90,000 pounds. Copper does not tarnish in dry air, but in moist air it becomes covered with a coating of green. Copper forms poisonous compounds. Vegetables of all sorts may be boiled safely in a copper kettle, but should on no account be allowed to stand in it. Vinegar should not come into contact with copper. The green rust which forms on the surface of copper kettles and on copper coins is a carbonate of copper. It is formed by the carbonic acid and oxygen of the air, which act upon moist copper. It is very poisonous; hence naked copper vessels would better not be used at all in cooking. Although copper is a poison, the human system seems to require a trace of it. Bread and nearly all ordinary foods contain from two to four parts of copper to the million. The tissue of the human liver contains thirty parts to the million. Copper is found usually in compound with other elements. In union with carbon it forms a beautiful mineral known as malachite; with sulphur and iron, it forms copper pyrites. It occurs also as an oxide, and in combination with sulphur. In these cases it occurs in fissures or veins in rocks. Masses of copper occur in conglomerate rocks and in sandstones. This is the case in the Superior region and to some extent in Montana. Copper is distributed widely, but is found in paying quantities in few localities. The first American copper was found in Connecticut. Montana, the upper peninsula of Michigan, and the mines of Arizona furnish half the world's copper. The Michigan copper mines appear to have been visited by the American Indians in prehistoric times. Shallow pits were found by the white man from which the aborigines had apparently dug copper. Large blocks of pure copper had been detached and left by them. Copper ornaments, bracelets, rings, and anklets, implements, knives, awls, and axes, made, apparently, from Lake Superior copper, have been found in Indian graves and old dwellings. The most celebrated copper mine in this region is the Calumet and Hecla, which has already reached a depth of over 4,000 feet, and has yielded as high as 63,000,000 pounds of copper in a single year. The Anaconda mine of Butte has reached a depth of 1,000 feet. An entire granite mountain is seamed with copper and silver veins. It is the source of wealth on which the city has been built up. Montana has a reputation for having produced over 340,000,000 pounds of copper in a single year. Utah, California, Oregon, Colorado, and New Mexico have deposits of copper, and even Vermont produced 1,200,000 pounds of copper in 1892. About one-sixth of the world's copper is refined by a single plant in Brooklyn. Of old world mines the most famous are near Seville, where a series of copper veins crosses the boundary line between Spain and Portugal. Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Austria produce copper. Italian veins were worked by the ancient Etruscans. The ancient supply of Great Britain was drawn chiefly from Cornwall. Copper is also produced in Mexico, Nova Scotia , the province of Quebec, Cape Colony, Chile and Australia. A rather remarkable mine is found in Japan. The world produces about 500,000 long tons of copper a year. The United States produced 1,000,000,000 pounds in 1906, nearly twice as much as was obtained from all other countries. Bronze of apparent Asiatic origin containing a little tin, was in use in Homeric times. Tools of copper in the form of bronze have been found in the lake dwellings of Switzerland. Although both copper and tin are soft, an alloy of these metals is hard. Cannon are made of an alloy of ninety parts of copper and ten of tin. Bronze statues are made usually of copper, tin, and zinc. There are over one hundred grades and kinds of bronze. Brass is also an alloy of copper with zinc, much used for builder's hardware and for ornamental purposes in machinery. Copper was once in great demand for sheathing the keels of vessels, but it has been supplanted largely by iron and by the substitution of copper paint. Copper is still used for plumbing and for roofing. Copper wire is strong and is an excellent conductor of electricity. An immense amount is used in the manufacture of telegraph and telephone wires. Copper oxide is used to color glass a ruby-red tint. The annual consumption of copper for all purposes has increased faster than that of any other metal, and it is now estimated that the United States alone uses (1906) 720,000,000 pounds a year. The price of copper has been subject to extreme fluctuations. During the past fifty years it has ranged from nine cents to sixty cents per pound, but of late the few really considerable copper mines have passed into the hands of owners who cooperate under an agreement as to quantity and prices. For some years the price of copper has been substantially from twelve and one-half cents to eighteen cents per pound. The North American production of copper for 1908 is estimated by the Engineering and Mining Journal: Pounds. Alaska 5,300,000 Arizona 288,900,000 California 37,500,000 Colorado 15,000,000 Idaho 9,000,000 Michigan 221,500,000 Montana 255,400,000 Nevada 11,300,000 New Mexico 5,700,000 Utah 75,300,000 Wyoming 2,500,000 Other States 24,500,000 --------------- Total for U.S 952,395,477 Canada 53,500,000 Mexico 84,000,000 American manufacturers import also from South America . Twenty-three million pounds were imported from Peru alone in 1908. The entire importations for the year from all countries were 162,000,000 pounds. The world production of copper for 1907 was: Pounds. United States 879,241,600 Spain and Portugal 111,034,000 Chile 59,646,400 Japan 109,379,600 Germany 45,799,600 Mexico 134,479,400 Australasia 92,202,000 South Africa 15,043,600 Canada 46,248,400 Other localities 101,323,200 Total of the world . . . . . 1,592,375,400 See Aluminum ; Brass ; Butte ; Alloy ; Mining ; Vitriol ; Bordeaux ; Typhoid ; Waste Standard-Mammoth Mills at Wallace, Idaho. Copper Mining A Group of Butte Montana Mines. Copper Mining

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a dyad metallic element; symbol, Cu.; at. wt. 63.5; sp. gr., 8.95; melting point, 1,091° C. Copper is a red malleable, ductile metal, occurring in a native state on the S. shore of Lake Superior. It also occurs to a greater extent as copper pyrites of a brass yellow color as peacock ore, characterized by its iridescent colors, in the Butte mines, Montana; as gray copper ore, a sulphide, in Cornwall and Freiberg; as indigo copper, so called from its color, in Chile; as malachite, or green carbonate, in Si' beria and Australia; and as azurite or blue carbonate in Burra Burra, Australia. Copper forms several alloys. Brass is an alloy of two-thirds copper and onethird zin zinc; bronze, gun-metal, and bellmetal are alloys of copper with tin. Copper forms two series of compounds, the cuprous and cupric salts. Copper arsenite, or Scheele's green, is used as a pigment for wall papers; it is very poi- Copper salts are detected by sonous. giving in an acid solution a black precipitate with H₂S. All salts of copper are poisonous. Verdigris is an acetate of copper, often formed by cooking food in copper vessels. Production.-Since the census year 1880 the United States has risen to the rank of the largest copper producer in the world, outstripping by far any other country. The production of copper in the United States in 1919 was 1,310,- 541,529 pounds. The production in 1918 was 1,908,533,595 pounds. The largest production was from Arizona, which contributed 536,513,368 pounds. Michigan 35 pounds, and was second with 201,716,335 Montana third with 176,189,873 pounds. The production of Utah was 148,057,450 pounds. Other States producing over 50,000,000 pounds were New Mexico and Alaska produced 56,534,992 Nevada. pounds. The total value of the production in 1919 was $243,761,000, compared with a value in 1918 of $471,408,000. The imports of copper ore in 1919 amounted to 49,716,511 pounds. There were imported 263,220,449 pounds of unrefined black copper, and copper in bars, pigs, or other forms. The exports of copper in 1919 amounted to 516,627,775 pounds. History. Copper has been known since prehistoric times. There may have been a copper age before that of bronze. The latter compound metal, an alloy of copper and tin, was known long before brass had been made. The word copper occurs once in the Old Testament (Ezra viii: 27), but what is in many places called brass should have been rendered copper. Copper was in use in ancient Assyria. The classical nations were familiar with it, The Greeks brought it from Cyprus, the mines being at Tamassus, near Fama- Copper mines were first opened Co gosta. in England A. D. 1189, but not very successfully till A. D. 1689.

Copper This useful metal has been known from the earliest times

The Encyclopedia of Founding (1892)

This useful metal has been known from the earliest times. With tin it no doubt formed the first metallic compound, and was extensively employed by the ancients in the production of ornaments, statuary, domestic utensils, and implements of war. Pliny informs us that the Roman supply was drawn from Cyprus, the metal being called cyprium for that reason. The latter word was corrupted to cuprum, from whence is derived the English, copper. The color of copper is a brilliant red, its specific gravity 8.788, its tenacity only somewhat below that of iron, and higher than either silver or gold. Copper melts at 2550 deg.; its malleability and ductility is high, takes a remarkable degree of polish, ranks next to silver as a conductor of electricity, is hardly affected by dry air, but, on exposure to a damp atmosphere, a green carbonate gathers on its surface. This metal is widely distributed throughout nature, occurring in ores, soils, and waters--in fact, it is almost as universal as iron. In Lake Superior the metal occurs native, and in some instances irregular masses exceeding 100 tons in weight are found. Out of nearly a dozen different ores cuprite, or red oxide, contains the most metal--about 80 per cent when pure--the rest yielding smaller quantities. Chrysolica, a hydrated silicate of copper found in Chili, Missouri, and Wisconsin, yields only 30 per cent. The Cornish ores consist of copper pyrites, a sulphide of copper and iron. There are three ways of obtaining copper from its ores, the dry, or pyro-metallurgical, the wet, or hydro-metallurgical, and the electro-metallurgical; but the two former are the methods generally employed. The dry method, or smelting, is invariably pursued when the ores contain over 5 per cent of copper; for a lower grade than this the wet process only is profitable. Swansea and Lancashire are the chief copper-smelting centres in Great Britain. The ores are selected with a view to special treatment, according to their character. The first operation is calcining in reverberatory furnaces, where the ore is spread 8 inches deep on the bottom and subjected to the action of air and fire at a dull-red heat, being frequently turned over to expose every part to their combined influence for from 12 to 24 hours, according to the proportion of sulphide of iron, silica, etc., contained in the charge. The sulphur by this action is partly burned off and forms sulphurous and sulphuric acids; partially volatilized in the pure state; arsenic volatilizes and is oxidized; and some sulphur from the copper and iron forms oxides by combining with the oxygen. The calcined ore is then fused in the reverberatory ore-fusing furnace, which is provided with a hopper through which to effect the charging, the charge usually consisting of calcined ore 2600, metal-slag from previous operations 800, cobbing 250. About five hours' hard firing reduces this to a fluid mass, which, after being well skimmed, is tapped into perforated iron boxes, which are suspended in cisterns 50 inches square and 80 inches deep, full of water. At this stage the compound analyzes at: copper 33, sulphur 29, iron 33, and is termed granulated or coarse metal. It is subsequently recalcined, in a similar manner as for the ore, in 4-ton charges. About 24 hours, at a gradually increasing heat, up to a bright red, prepares the metal for running off into cubs, where it is treated to another bath of water, after which it is again fused, and by this treatment the silica and oxide of iron combine to form slags, which are skimmed off and the metal again tapped, but in this case it is run into sand-moulds. The resulting compound is now called blue metal, and consists of copper 58, sulphur 20, iron 12. It is now ready for a further treatment by roasting, in charges of 3 tones. The roasting furnace is provided with side charging arrangements and additional air-holes in the bridge, through which a free current of air is admitted, passing over the fused mass, which is kept in a semi-fluid state for about 24 hours, during which time much more of the sulphur has been driven off, and the iron turned into slag by its union with silica, the latter being constantly skimmed off as it is formed. At this stage, when other impurities have been driven off, it has become a sulphide of copper, and must receive still another 24 hours' roasting to eliminate the sulphur, after which it is again tapped into sand-moulds, forming, according to quality, the several kinds of copper known as blister, coarse, pimpled, and bed copper. Ingots showing a smooth, hollow surface indicate the presence of tin, and are called bed; a pimply surface indicates sulphur; scales of oxide on the surface indicate the blister quality, which is esteemed as ready for refining, and, in this state, consists of copper 98.1, iron .7, manganese, cobalt, and nickel .3, arsenic and tin .4, sulphur .2. The Siemens Regenerative Furnace is esteemed as the best for refining. Its form is reverberatory, almost like the roasting-furnace, except that the bed inclines towards the reservoir at the end, where, by means of a door, the refined metal may be skimmed off and dipped out. When the metal has collected, it is subjected to polling by thrusting a piece of green oak to the bottom and holding it there. Dipping tests by the refiner indicate when the metal has attained the proper degree of fibre. When the polling ceases the surface is at once covered with charcoal, and a little lead added if the copper is required for rolling or forging; but no lead is employed when the best quality of commercial copper is made. See REFINING. The wet process of grinding and roasting, by which means sulphuric acid is formed, and attacks the oxide of copper. The sulphate resulting from this treatment is dissolved, and the copper precipitated by peroxide of iron. Dilute sulphuric acid and muriatic acids scarcely act upon copper; boiling oil of vitriol attacks it, with evolution of sulphurous anhydride. Nitric acid, even dilute, dissolves it readily, with evolution of nitric acid. Copper unites readily with almost all other metals in certain proportions, and not a few of its compounds are of the highest importance in the arts; it may be said that copper is even more important and valuable as a constituent element in a large number of alloys than it could possibly be as a pure metal. It is somewhat difficult to make castings free from blow-holes with pure copper. An excellent remedy for this is to flux with about one ounce of zinc to each four pounds of copper. Copper combines easily with gold in all proportions, with the result of increased fusibility and hardness; but the ductility is impaired as the hardness increases, its greatest degree of hardness occurring when the proportion of copper is 1/18. The increased fusibility of the alloy admits of its being used as a solder for gold. Bronze, brass, and German-silver are the principal alloys in which copper enters as a chief ingredient. With zinc, it forms brass; with lead, pot, metal; with zinc and nickel, German-silver; with zinc, tin, and arsenic, tombac; with tin, bronze. The aluminum bronzes consist of pure copper alloyed with from 1 3/4 to 10 per cent aluminum. Phosphor bronze has from 2 1/2 to 15 per cent tin and from 1/4 to 2 1/2 per cent phosphorus, according to what it may be required for. Besides these there are the very numerous and excellent copper alloys for manufacturing purposes, in which the three metals, tin, zinc, and lead, are mixed with it in varying quantities; and others again in which sulphur, bismuth, antimony, cobalt, nickel, silver, iron, etc., are employed in small proportions. See BRASS; BRONZE; GERMAN-SILVER; ZINC; LEAD; POT-METAL; TOMBAC; ALUMINUM-BRONZE; PHOSPHOR-BRONZE; SILVER; ALLOYS; SOLDERS; FONTAINMOREAU'S BRONZES; MUSIC-METAL. Copperas (Green copperas).--The commercial name for sulphate of iron, a compound of the protoxide of iron with sulphuric acid. It is largely manufactured from iron pyrites, which furnishes by oxidation both the acid and the base. It is often a beautiful mineral, the crystals being a very perfect shape. See SULPHUR.

Copper Perhaps the most useful solutions for the plater are the cyanide copper solution

American Watchmaker and Jeweler (1892)

Perhaps the most useful solutions for the plater are the cyanide copper solution, and the cyanide brass or bronze solution. The acid copper solution generally used, which is merely sulphate of copper dissolved in water, is easily made and used, but has numerous disadvantages when compared with the cyanide. It will deposit faster, but leaves a rough and crystalline surface, and cannot be used on steel, as the latter metal is electrically opposed to copper in the presence of sulphuric acid, and sets up a local action which throws off the deposit in scales as fast as it is formed. The cyanide solution deposits a smooth, even and firm coating, takes equally well on steel, brass or other surfaces, and is capable of so many variations that it may be regarded as the basis of all brass, bronze and copper plating. It is also the only sure means of making a firm deposit of silver or gold on steel. Articles of iron or steel should first be given a light coating of copper, and then the gold or nickel will be held firmly, evenly and smoothly, so that lighter coatings of the more expensive metals will wear longer and look better than a thicker deposit directly on the steel. The old formulae for cyanide of copper solutions, all recommend mixing acetate of copper with carbonate and bisulphite of soda, and then adding potassium cyanide to the carbonate of copper thus formed. This encumbers the bath with a number of useless secondary reactions, and makes it liable to get out of order. It is much better to buy carbonate of copper from a dealer in platers' supplies. It is cheaper than the acetate, and does not put anything in the solution which is unnecessary To make the solution, use to each gallon of water: Carbonate of copper_____________________________7 ozs. Carbonate of soda_______________________________2 ozs. Cyanide of potassium (chemically pure)__________8 ozs. Dissolve about nine-tenths of the cyanide of potassium in a portion of the water, and add nearly all of the carbonate of copper, previously dissolved in a portion of the water; then add the carbonate of soda, also dissolved in water, slowly stirring until thoroughly mixed. If you have a hydrometer, make your solution to 16 deg. B., then put in a small article and test your solution, adding cyanide or copper, or both, until the solution deposits freely and uniformly. This may be regarded as a stock solution, and if much work is done, it is best to use it as a basis and make others from it, keeping them separate.

Copper A metal of a reddish color

American Watchmaker and Jeweler (1892)

A metal of a reddish color, malleable, ductile and tenacious. It fuses at 2,000 deg. Fah. and has a specific gravity varying from 8.8 to 8.9. It has a breaking strain of 48,000 lbs. per square inch. In horology it is employed as a backing for enameled watch dials; in the construction of gridiron compensation pendulums; in the manufacture of compensation balances, etc. When mixed with tin it forms bell-metal and bronze and with zinc it forms brass and other alloys. See Alloys.

What Has Changed in the Last Century

Aiton's in 1910 put world output near 500,000 long tons and had the United States making "nearly twice as much as was obtained from all other countries"; world mine production is now above 20 million tonnes a year, and the leaders are Chile, Peru and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the United States a distant contributor. The great mines named here are gone: the Calumet and Hecla closed in 1968 and Michigan's native-copper district with it, while underground mining at Butte gave way to the vast Berkeley Pit, now a flooded and acidic Superfund site. Copper today comes overwhelmingly from low-grade open pits treated by froth flotation or acid leaching, and its dominant use is still what the entry foresaw ow for power grids, motors and electronics rather than telegraph lines. The warning about cooking in "naked copper vessels" survives in modern practice, but copper pans are lined with tin or stainless steel, and the "trace" the body needs is now understood in detail as an essential element in enzymes such as ceruloplasmin.

Written for this edition, 2026.