193 



COPPER, ALLOYS OF. 



COPPER MANUFACTURE. 



191 



perties. Nevertheless, it often promotes free secretion of saliva, which 

 renders it an eligible tonic in some forms of dyspepsia, with depressed 

 nervous power, when a dry condition of the mouth and throat exists, 

 particularly in the morning. It is often available in such cases when 

 mercury is inadmissible. The presence of a minute quantity of copper 

 in Saidschutz water may render that spring a preferable place of resort 

 for dyspeptics in whom torpor of the liver prevails. In a considerable 

 dose the sulphate causes vomiting; in still larger doses it causes purging, 

 accompanied with tenesmus, followed by convulsive agitation of the 

 head, or rigidity amounting to tetanic, laborious respiration, pain and 

 tightness of the head, insensibility, lethargy, and speedy death. In some 

 instances the narcotic symptoms are the first to be displayed, those of 

 irritation succeeding ; jaundice, if the patient survive, or yellowness of 

 the corpse, is no uncommon occurrence, a fact to be borne in mind as 

 a distinctive mark of poisoning by copper among metals : the same 

 sign however occurs in poisoning from aconite, and most ranuncula- 

 ceous plants. If the effect of the poison when copper has been taken 

 has been speedy, few traces of morbid action are found in the intestinal 

 canal ; and " too much reliance ought not to be placed on mere bluish 

 or greenish colouring of the membranes of the stomach ; for Orfila and 

 Guersent have both observed that the inside of the stomach, as well as 

 its contents, may acquire these tints in a very remarkable degree in 

 consequence of natural disease." (Christison.) 



In cases of slow poisoning by copper, such as happen when some of 

 its salts in substance or solution have been taken daily for a consider- 

 able time, fatal results follow, and the copper may be detected accu- 

 mulated in the liver, though not discoverable in any other organ of the 

 body. The circumstances of the copper being carried to the liver 

 explains the frequent occurrence of jaundice, as stated above. 



In small medicinal doses, sulphate of copper has been employed in 

 diarrhoea, which, when chronic, it often checks; even in Asiatic cholera 

 it has proved useful. Indeed it seems to check augmented secretion 

 from all mucous surfaces, on which account it may be used in chronic 

 discharges from the urino-genital organs, and also of the lungs, to 

 benefit which last organ it is usually given as an emetic. It may like- 

 wise be employed as an emetic in cases of poisoning by narcotic agents, 

 in preference to tartrate of antimony or ipecacuanha, as its action is 

 not preceded by nausea, which promotes the absorption of the poisonous 

 agent. 



Its chief internal use, however, is as a tonic and antispasmodic, in 

 many convulsive and nervous diseases, such as epilepsy and chorea. 

 In these last-named diseases the ammoniacal sulphate is often to be 

 preferred, given in the form of pill. Sulphate of copper is, however, 

 in most frequent use by surgeons as an external application to wounds 

 when indolent, or filled with the unhealthy kind of granulations termed 

 " proud flesh." It is similarly used in some forms of ophthalmia, espe- 

 cially of the inner surfaces of the eyelids. Small ulcers of the gums 

 readily heal by touching them with the Mdayyptiacum, a solution of 

 sulphate of copper in honey. 



Diacetate of copper is rarely given internally ; but it is the frequent 

 source of accidental or intentional poisoning, when its general effects 

 are nearly the same as those of the sulphate. In the form of a 

 liniment, it is of great utility in certain affections of the mouth and 

 gums, applied by means of a camel's-hair brush. Likewise as an 

 ointment to stimulate old and indolent ulcers, it is superior to all 

 other means. 



Poison often results from the formation of verdigris in copper 

 vessels used in cooking, or the more reprehensible practice of putting 

 copper coins into pickles to make them a fine green colour. It seems 

 that copper vessels, if kept clean, are not dangerous, provided whatever 

 is boiled in them (unless of an acid nature, which will always form 

 some dangerous compound) be not allowed to stand to cool in the 

 vessel, but be instantly poured out. Tinning the interior of copper 

 vessels affords protection so long as the tinning remains entire. In 

 case of poisoning, the best antidotes are whites of eggs, milk, or wheat 

 flour ; ferrocyanate of potass, or iron filings, in gum-water, may be 

 given ; sugar or any syrup is useful. But liver of sulphur should 

 never be given, and least of all should vinegar. 



COPPER, ALLOYS OF. [COPPER.] 



COPPER MANUFACTURE. In the article above the processes are 

 noticed of smelting and refining copper, whether it be intended for 

 the manufacture of brass, or rolling into sheets. Here we shall briefly 

 notice some of the subsequent processes in the manufacture of copper 

 goods. It may be well first, however, to notice one or two additional 

 matters relating incidentally to the smelting. 



> Great Britain is not so rich in copper as to give it a leading position 

 among copper-producing countries ; it is the advantage of cheap fuel, 

 and the skill obtained by our smelters, that render the operations in 

 Cornwall and Wales so important. It is also observable that France 

 and Belgium are almost destitute of copper-mines; so that the 

 English have an opening in those countries for manufactured cop- 

 per, and can compete in Central Europe with Russian copper. It has 

 sometimes been feared that the large supplies of copper from Chili, 

 the United States, and Australia, will by-and-by affect injuriously the 

 Cornish interest ; but, on the other hand, if processes be adopted for 

 the more economical reduction of copper, ores of two qualities could 

 then be brought into the market. South Wales, although not yet 

 materially threatened, is beginning to feel the effects of competition 



ABT8 SD SCI. DIV. VOL. III. 



further north. Liverpool, having a great import of foreign and colonial 

 copper ores and bar copper, is favouring the establishment of smelting- 

 works on the Mersey ; and now that great port has a copper-market 

 which is growing yearly in importance. Many of the South Wales 

 smelters from time to time bring forward improvements in their art ; 

 one, for instance, is that of Mr. Parkes, relating to processes for 

 obtaining superior copper from inferior ores, by adding a little iron or 

 zinc, which is afterwards driven off. The ore is smelted as usual, so 

 far as the roasting process ; the ore is then allowed to cool ; one cwt. 

 of iron is thrown in to 50 cwt. of regulus ; the furnace-doors are 

 closed ; the whole is heated up to the degree of pimpled copper, and 

 then tapped. Mr. Parkes also has a process for the treatment of 

 argentiferous copper-ore, depending on the fact that silver may be 

 volatilised by applying heat when in combination with metallic zinc 

 and arsenic. 



Leaving any further details untouched in this article, we proceed 

 to notice the modes of fabricating sheet and bar copper into useful 

 articles. 



The principal peculiarity in the manufacture of this metal arises 

 from the facility with which it may be fashioned by the hammer. 

 The processes of casting and rolling, both of which are extensively 

 practised in the manufacture of copper goods, so closely resemble the 

 like operations upon other metals, that they do not require further 

 notice ; but the operations of the copper-smith are very distinct from 

 any other branch of metallic manufactures. One of the best examples, 

 perhaps, of manufactures in copper, is presented in the large pans for 

 boiling sugar in vacuo ; and this we may take to illustrate the succes- 

 sive processes. Each of these pans consists of a circular domed vessel, 

 with several apertures for valves, gauges, &c., and a spiral coil of 

 copper pipe within the lower part. The top and bottom of this 

 vessel, which are of similar shape, both being convex externally, are 

 formed of one piece each, in the following manner : The copper is 

 in the first place cast into a form resembling that of a double 

 convex lens, thickest in the middle, and diminishing gradually to- 

 wards the edges. This lens is then subjected to the powerful blows 

 of a tilt-hammer, directed more continuously near the centre than near 

 the edges. A little consideration will show that this hammering, 

 while it reduces the thickness of the copper, must make it curl up at 

 the edges, or assume a dished or hollow form : we find that this is the 

 case even when a flat piece of metal is hammered at its centre, and still 

 more does this result ensue when an increased substance is given to the 

 centre. The thickness of the centre is so adjusted as to afford metal 

 enough for the curvature of the vessel, and the hammering is continued 

 till the thickness of the whole is brought nearly uniform. This is a 

 very important process, since the fitness of the vessel for the operations 

 of the sugar-refinery depends on the soundness and perfection of the 

 metal Sometimes a piece of copper, dished or hollowed in this way, 

 and worth forty guineas in material and labour, if sound, is rendered 

 useless by a flaw in the metal. 



The above description will indicate the mode in which many curved 

 articles of copper receive their shape. Another process no less peculiar 

 to the manufacture is the hammering, technically called planishing, by 

 which the metal is rendered dense and firm, and its toughness is 

 increased, a process of so deafening a nature as to impart a singular 

 character to a coppersmith's establishment. This operation presents 

 something of the picturesque effect formerly observable in auchor- 

 smitheries, when Nasmyth's hammer had not yet superseded the 

 ordinary hammers : six or eight men, standing in a circle round the 

 piece of copper, and each wielding a heavy hammer, strike the metal in 

 succession, every part of the surface receiving probably as many as ten 

 or twelve blows. Any one who examines a large copper vessel will 

 perceive, both in the hammer-marks and in the density and close grain 

 of the surface, evidences of the planishing process. 



By these two processes of hammering, the first to beat the copper 

 into the required shape, and the second to condense and harden the 

 surface when the shaping is completed, many articles which it might 

 seem difficult to form without numerous joints are fashioned, often 

 from masses of cast metal formed originally in a very different shape, 

 or vary much smaller and thicker than the finished articles are intended 

 to be. In many cases, however, the hardness occasioned by the 

 hammering impedes the shaping process, and must be repeatedly re- 

 moved by annealing or softening by heat, to renew the malleability and 

 extensibility of the metal. The principal component parts of a large 

 copper vessel being thus formed, the next point which claims notice is 

 the mode of joining them together. Riveting is a mode of fastening 

 much employed for this purpose. In this process the edges of the 

 adjoining plates are made to overlap, and holes are punched through 

 the overlapping plates by a punching-engiue, which cuts out a small 

 circular piece equal in size to the rivet. The rivets, which may be 

 compared to short, thick, blunt nails, are then inserted ; and the smaller 

 ends, which project through the holes, are spread out by the hammer so 

 as to form what may be styled a second head. The edges of the sheets 

 or plates of copper are finally caulked, or hammered until they close so 

 perfectly as to form a joint impervious to water, air, or steam. Smaller 

 copper vessels are united by soldering or brazing. Holland, in Lardner's 

 ' Cabinet Cyclopaedia,' refers to a copper tea-kettle as presenting a 

 familiar but ingenious specimen of the coppersmith's art, both with 

 reference to soldering and hammering. " Taken, indeed/' he observes, 







