COAT OF ARMS COBENTZL. 



285 



' lioly alliance' of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, which 

 was joined by the king of France, at Aix-la-Chapelle 

 (q. v.), in 1818. In Britain and the United States 

 of North America, the word coalitioii is used to de- 

 note the union of several parties or their leaders 

 against another party ; but it always expresses some- 

 thing odious. Thus, for instance, the party of Pitt 

 denounced the coalition of Fox and North. 



COAT OF ARMS; 1. the surcoat worn by a 

 knight ; 2. the ensigns armorial of a family ; so call- 

 ed, because originally worn on some part of the ar- 

 mour. Their origin is to be referred to the age of 

 chivalry, when tlrey were assumed as emblematic of 

 the adventures, love, hopes, &c., of the knight, and 

 were useful for distinguishing individuals, whom it 

 was difficult to recognize, covered, as they were, 

 from head to foot, with armour. This, perhaps, may 

 even have been the origin of the usage. As every 

 thing else became hereditary in Europe, estates, 

 dignities, titles, privileges, so the favourite emblem 

 ofthe knight became the adopted badge of the fami- 

 ly, the figures or characters employed in them began 

 to receive names, and the language and science of 

 heraldry (q. v.) was formed. The right to bear 

 arms thus became a distinctive mark of gentle birth. 

 In France, the feudal privileges and nobility were 

 abolished by the revolution. Under Napoleon, the 

 imperial noblesse wore a certain number of feathers, 

 indicative of their rank ; a simple chevalier, one ; a 

 baron, three ; a duke, seven. 



COBALT occurs alloyed with arsenic, nickel, and 

 other metals, and mineralized by oxygen and by arse- 

 nic acid. It is obtained, after the ore has been 

 roasted and calcined, in the state of an oxyde, impure 

 from the presence of other metallic oxydes. When 

 this oxyde is obtained in a state of purity, and redu- 

 ced to the metallic state, we are presented with a me- 

 tal of a white colour, inclining to gray, and, if tar- 

 nished, to red, with a moderate lustre. Its fracture 

 is compact ; it is hard, brittle, and of a specific gra- 

 vity of 7'8. Like nickel, it is sensibly magnetic, 

 and is susceptible of being rendered permanently so. 

 It undergoes little change in the air, but absorbs 

 oxygen when heated in open vessels. It is attacked 

 with difficulty by sulphuric or muriatic acid, but is 

 readily oxidyzed by means of nitric acid. There are 

 but two oxydes of cobalt known. The protoxyde is 

 of an ash-gray colour, and is the basis of the salts of 

 cobalt, most of which are of a pink hue. When 

 heated to redness in open vessels, it absorbs oxygen, 

 and is converted into the peroxyde. It may be pre- 

 pared by decomposing the carbonate of cobalt by 

 heat, in a vessel from which the atmospheric air is 

 excluded. It is easily known by its giving a blue 

 tint to borax when melted with it, and is employed 

 in the arts, in the form of smalt, for communicating a 

 similar colour to glass, to earthen ware, and to porce- 

 lain. Smalt, or powder blue, is made by melting 

 three parts of fine white sand, or of calcined flints, 

 with two of purified pearl-ash and one of cobalt ore, 

 previously calcined, and lading it out of the pots 

 into a vessel of cold water ; after which, the dark- 

 blue glass, or zaffer, is ground, washed over, and dis- 

 tributed into different shades of colours, which shades 

 are occasioned by the different qualities of the ore, 

 and the coarser and finer grinding of the powder. 

 Smalt, besides being used to stain glass and pottery, 

 is often substituted, in painting, for ultra-marine blue, 

 and is likewise employed to give to paper and linen 

 a bluish tinge. The muriate of cobalt is celebrated 

 as a sympathetic ink. When diluted with water, so 

 as to form a pale pink solution, and then employed 

 as -ink, the letters which are invisible in the cold, 

 become blue if gently heated. It is prepared by 

 dissolving one part of zaffer in two of diluted nitric 



acid, with the aid of heat, adding to it of muriate of 

 soda ine part, and diluting with twenty parts of 

 water. The peroxyde of cobalt is of a black colour, 

 and is easily formed in the way already mentioned. 

 It does not unite with acids ; and, when digested in 

 muriatic acid, the proto-muriate of cobalt is generat- 

 ed with the disengagement of chlorine. When 

 strongly heated in close vessels, it gives off oxygen, 

 and is converted into the protoxyde. 



Ores of cobalt : 1. White cobalt ore, or bright w/iitt 

 cobalt ore, consists, principally, of cobalt and arsenic. 

 Its colour is tin-white, liable to tarnish, with little 

 lustre. It occurs massive and crystallized, in cubes 

 and in octahedrons. It is hard and brittle. Specific 

 gravity, 7-3, to 7 '7. Before the blowpipe, it melts, 

 and gives an arsenical smoke and odour. It forms 

 a metallic globule, and gives to borax a blue colour. 

 It occurs chiefly in primitive rocks, and is frequently 

 accompanied with bismuth. It is found most abun- 

 dantly in Germany, Sweden and Norway, and also 

 occurs in several other European countries. 2. 

 Gray cobalt ore, is an alloy of cobalt with arsenic 

 and iron, and is sometimes accompanied with small 

 portions of nickel and bismuth. Its colour is light 

 gray; liable to tarnish. It occurs massive or dis- 

 seminated, and is never crystallized. It has been 

 found in the United States, at Chatham, Connecti- 

 cut, but has not been wrought advantageously. It 

 also occurs in Bohemia, Saxony, and France. 3. 

 Red cobalt ore is a hydrated arseniate of cobalt, of 

 a beautiful peach-blossom red colour. It occurs 

 massive, disseminated, and in minute crystals. It 

 accompanies other ores of cobalt. 



COBENTZL, Louis, count of, son of count John 

 of Cobentzl, a diplomatist in the Austrian service, 

 was born at Brussels in 1753. He entered first into 

 the military service of Austria, was appointed mini- 

 ster at Copenhagen, after the revolution of 1771, 

 and at the court of Frederic the Great, from 1775 to 

 1778. In 1779, he was sent on an embassy to Ca- 

 tharine II. of Russia, whose favour he secured by his 

 gallantry, and by composing and taking part himself 

 in comedies at her private theatre. In 1795, he 

 concluded a grand triple alliance between Russia, 

 Britain, and Austria, against the French republic. 

 Being recalled to Vienna the following year, he was 

 again employed in political negotiations. He- was 

 one ofthe plenipotentiaries who signed the treaty of 

 Campo-Formio, between Austria and France, in 

 October, 1797, and was also sent to the congress of 

 Rastadt. In the following year, he held a confer- 

 ence, at Seltz, with Francis de Neufchateau, a mem- 

 ber of the executive directory, respecting the insult 

 offered to Bernadotte at Vienna. He then returned 

 to Petersburg, whence he was summoned, and sent 

 to Luneville ; and there concluded a treaty of peace 

 with France, in February, 1801. A few months af- 

 ter, he was appointed minister of state and vice- 

 chancellor for the department of foreign affairs at 

 Vienna. In 1805, he followed the Austrian court to 

 Olmutz, and died at Vienna in 1809. 



COBENTZL, JOHN PHILIP, count de, cousin ot Uie 

 last mentioned individual, was born in Carniola in 

 1741. He was made a counsellor of finance in 1762, 

 and afterwards privy counsellor at Brussels. In 1779, 

 he was employed as a diplomatist at the conclusion 

 of the peace of Teschen. In 1790, he was sent to 

 Brabant to treat with the insurgent Netherlanders ; 

 but the states refused to receive him, on which he 

 retired to Luxembourg, where he published a declara- 

 tion, by which the emperor of Germany revoked all 

 those edicts which had caused the insurrection, and 

 re-established the previous state of affairs. His 

 failure on this occasion probably prevented him from 

 being again employed till 1801, when he was sent 



