' 



COFROUTIX 



IM 



frldle Uravity. M to *5. 



Brittle. Hardness, 85 to 4'5. 



Oxide of Copper 



Mere UM blow-pip* and to acids it set. like tne preced 

 lllHIMlll other ores of copper. At Chessy in Frai 

 li*nlii iff -TTT-T|- J ' J It is found also to Siberia, i 

 and new Redruth to Cornwall As incrustations, I 



> Ike blow-pip* and to adds it acts like the preceding. Arurite 



in France iu crystal- 

 , to the Bannat 

 . and rarely as 



New York ; also in other parts of 

 tae roiled Mute*. 



abaodant H is a valuable or* of copper. It makes a poor 

 . M it is liable to ton green. 



" Mwate */Cbp*r. Usually as incrustations; botryonlal 

 an to thin sssms and stains: no fibrous structure 

 , nor any appearance of crystallisation. Colour bright green, 

 eea. Lustre of surface of incrustations smoothly shining ; 

 earthy. Translucent to opaque. Hardness, 2 to 8. Specific 

 Gravity, J to M. Composition :- 



Oxide of Copper 40-0 



SUioa 36-5 



Water 20-2 



Carbonic Acid 21 



Olid* of Iron 1-0 



Tab mineral varies much to the proportion of its constituents, as 

 H knot crystallised. It blackens in the inner flame of the blow-pipe 

 without melting. With borax it is partly reduced. No effervescence 

 nor complete solution to nitric add, cold or heated. 



It is distinguished from green malachite, as stated under that species. 

 It accompanies other copper ores to Cornwall, Hungary, the Tyrol, 

 Siberia, Tnuringia, Ac. In Chili it is abundant at the various mines. 

 In Wisconsin and Missouri it is so abundant as to be worked for 

 copper. It was formerly taken for green malachite. This ore in the 

 par* state affords 30 per cent of copper, but as it occurs to the rock 

 will hardly yield one-third of this amount Still, when abundant, as 

 it appears to be to the Mississippi valley, it is a valuable ore. It is 

 e**y of reduction by means of limestone as a flux. 



riisfor is another silicate of copper, occurring in rhombohedral 

 crystals and hexagonal prisms. Colour emerald green. Lustre 

 vitreous ; streak gmsiiish Transparent to nearly opaque. Hardness, 

 5. Specific Gravity, 3-28. From the Kirghese Steppes of Siberia. 



Besides the above salts of copper, the following species, which are of 

 little nee to the art*, are given to Dana's ' Manual of Mineralogy ' : 



Artenalet of Copper. 



fmekniu has a bright emerald-green colour, and contains 83 per 

 cent of arsenic acid and 48 per cent of oxide of copper. Occurs in 

 modified rhombic prisms. Hardness, 375. Specific Gravity, 3'4. 

 Prom Lebethen to Hungary. 



A fk sx'to is of a dark verdegris-green inclining to blue, and also 

 dark blue. Hardness, 2'5 to 3. Sp.Gr.,419. It contains 30 per cent. 

 of araenif acid and 54 per cent of oxide of copper. From Cornwall. 



Srimiti has an emerald-green colour, and occurs to mammillated 

 ninlinji Hardness, 4-5 to 5. Sp. Or., 4-04. Contains 33*8 per cent 

 of arsenic add and 59'4 per cent of oxide of copper. From Limerick, 

 baaasa, 



lAriofOMie varies from sky-blue to verdigris-green. It occurs to 

 rhombic prisms sometimes an inch broad. Hardness, 2'5. Sp. (Jr., 

 *$ to S-9. Contains 14 per cent of arsenic add and 49 per cent 

 of oxide of copper. 



(Mtmitt presents olive green to brownish colours, and occurs in pris- 

 maUc crystals or velvety coating*. Hardness, 3. Sp.Or.,4'2. Contains 

 847 par cent of arsenic add and 56'4 per cent of oxide of copper. 



Copfv Jfira is remarkable for it* thin foliated or mica-like struc- 

 ture. The colour is emerald or grass green. Hardness, 2. Sp. Or., 

 **t. It contains 21 per cent of arsenic add, 58 per cent of oxide 

 of oopprr, and SI per cent of water. From Cornwall and Hungary. 



Coffer Pmk is another arsenato of a pale apple-green and verdigris- 

 i colour. It ha* a perfect cleavage. It contains 25 per cent of 

 ) add, 4311 of oxide of copper, 176 of water, and 13-fl of carbo- 

 nate of lime. Prom Hungary, Siberia, the Tyrol, and Derbyshire. 



ComJmmit ha* a brownish black or blue colour. From Cornwall 



Thaw diaersat anenaUa of copper give an alliaceous odour when 

 batted OB charcoal before the blow pipe. 



Pkotpkala of Copper. 



JVrads MmlutUli occurs to vary oblique crystals or massive and 

 hlra*Hni. and has an emerald or bUckiah-graen colour. Hsrdneas, 

 4 S to 4. Hp. Or., 4-2. Contain* 08 per cent of oxide of copper. 

 rVwa near Bonn on the Rhine, and aleo from Hungary. 



fil Kiss id ha* a dark or olive-green colour, and occurs in prismatic 

 eryetal* sad massive. Hardness, 4. Hp. Or., 3 6 to 3 8. Contain* 64 

 par**at of oxide of copper. From Hungary and Cornwall. 



Jmtmtililt i* a green phosphate occurring massive in Hungary 

 O'lililn M per cent of oxidTofoopper. 



i before UM blow-pip*, and have the 



CUoridtt of Copper. 



A'afitmiif. Colour green to blackish-green. Lustre adamantine to 



itreous ; streak apple-green. Translucent to sub-translucent Occurs 



a right rhombic prisms and rectangular octahedrons ; also massive. 



insists of oxide of copper 76', muriatic acid 10-6, water 12'8. Gives 



ff fumes of muriatic acid before the blow-pipe, and leaves a globule 



of copper. From the Atacama Desert between Chili and Peru, and 



elsewhere in Chili; also from Vesuviusand Saxony. It i ground up in 



'lr.li, and sold as a powder for letters under the name of Arsenillo. 



A Sulpkote Chloride of Copper has been observed in Cornwall, in 

 blue acicular crystals, apparently hexagons! 



BfmmontHe of C. T. Jackson is a hydrous crenato-silicate of copper, 

 containing 16'8 per cent of crenic acid. It is bluish-green to greenish- 

 white, and pulverulent when dry. From Cheesy, France. 



Vanodott of Copper. Massive and foliated or pulverulent ; folia 

 citron-yellow, pearly. From the Ural. 



JJuratile. A hydrous carbonate of copper, zinc, and lime, occurring 

 n bluish radiating needles. Sp. Or., 3"2. From Chewy, France ; the 

 Altai Mountains ; and Tuscany. 



Velvet Copper Ore. In velvety druses or coatings, consisting of 

 short fine fibrous crystallisations. Colour, fine smalt blue. 



Copper has been known since the earliest periods. It is obtained 

 for the arts mostly from pyritous copper the gray sulphureU 

 and the carbonate ; also to some extent from the black oxide and 

 from solutions of the sulphate. The principal copper mine* in the 

 world are those of Cornwall and Devon in England ; of the island of 

 Cuba ; of Copiapo and other places in Chili ; Chessy, near Lyon, in 

 France ; in the Erzgebirge, in Saxony ; at Eisleben and Sangerhausen, 

 in Prussia ; at Ooslar, in the Lower Harz ; at Schemnitz, Kremnitz, 

 Kapnik, and the Bannat, in Hungary ; at Fahlun, in Sweden ; at 

 Turmsk, Nischne Tagilsk, and other places to the Urals ; also 

 m China and Japan. Lately extensive mines have been opened in 

 Southern Australia. Copper, united with zinc in different proportion*, 

 forms brass and pinchbeck. Bronze is an alloy of copper with 7 to 10 

 per cent, of tin. This is the material used for cannon. With 8 per 

 cent, of tin it is the bronze used for medals. With 20 per or 

 tin, the material for cymbals. Bell-metal is composed of copper with 

 n third to a fifth as much tin by weight Sheet-copper is made by 

 beating the copper in a furnace, and rolling it between iron rollers. 

 Copper is also worked by forging and casting. In canting, it will not 

 bear over a red heat without burning. 



(We are indebted for tbe substance of this article to Dana's excel- 

 lent ' Manual of Mineralogy.') 



COPPER, ORES OF. [COPPER] 



COPPERAS. [COPPER.] 



COPROL1TES (xirpot and A(8), the fossilised excrements of 

 reptiles, fish, and other animals, found in various strata of the earth. 

 1 >r. Buckland in his ' Bridgewater Treatise ' first drew attention to 

 the probable nature of these substances, some of which had been 

 previously known under the name of Bezoar Stones. These fosm'U 

 were first detected in the Lias at Lyme Regis and in other localities, 

 and their true nature inferred from the fact of their identity with 

 similar masses found actually within the body of many species of 

 lehthyotaurat. The Coprolita are often found to contain scales of 

 fishes, and occasionally teeth, and fragments of bone, belonging to 

 species of fishes and reptiles which have been swallowed by the animal 

 as food, and have passed undigested through its stomach. They oft.-n 

 occur in a spirally twisted form, which is a characteristic of the 

 excrements of some of the larger forms of recent fish, and have been 

 accepted by comparative anatomists as indications of the nature of 

 the intestinal tube in the extinct forms of Reptiles and Fishes. 



Professor Liebig says in his 'Letters on Chemistry,' "In the autumn 

 of 1842 Dr. Buckland pointed out to me a bed of Coprolites in th< 

 neighbourhood of Clifton, from half to one foot thick, inclosed in a 

 limestone formation, extending as a brown stripe in the rockn for 

 miles along the banks of the Severn. The limestone marl of l,\m.- 

 Regis consists for the most part of one fourth part of fossil exert-: 

 and bones. The same are abundant in the Lias of Batheaston, :m.l 

 Broadway Hill, near Evesham. Dr. Buckland mentions beds >< 

 miles in extent, the substance of which consists in many places of a 

 fourth part of Coprolites." 



Coprolites, when chemically examined, are found to contain a large 

 proportion of phosphate of lime. Liebig states that tome he examine! 

 from Clifton contained above 18 per cent of phosphate of lime, whilst 

 other specimens have afforded a much larger per centage. The 

 occurrence of phosphate of lime in these substances has led to tli.-n- 

 use as manures, and large quantities are annually collected in this 

 country for that purpose. Before being used they are submitted to 

 the action of sulphuric acid, by which the phosphate i converted into 

 a super-phosphate of lime. [MANUHB, in ARTS AND So. Div.J 



Not only have the beds of the Lias afforded deposits of phosphate 

 of lime which have received the name of Coprolita, but they have also 

 been found in the Greensand, in the Wealden Formation, and in the 

 Red Crag. In the latter formation it may be altogether doubted as 

 to whether the phosphate of lime there found in the form of dark- 

 brown ..r l.lnrkish smooth nodules, can be appropriately called 

 Coprolites. These nodules occur in beds or seams running through 

 the Red Crag of Suffolk, where, in the neighbourhood of Ipswich and 



