COBALT 



1451 



COBDEN 



metals in the combined state most commonly 

 as sulphides and arsenides. The pure cobalt 

 obtained from such ores is heavier, harder and 

 stronger than iron and does not rust or tarnish. 

 It. takes a good polish and, like nickel, can be 

 used for plating other metals. The metal is 

 not in much demand because nickel, which 

 costs less, usually serves the same purpose. 

 The compounds of cobalt are used to a con- 

 siderable extent as coloring matters. Cobalt 

 blue, coeruleum, new blue and smalt are blue 

 pigments used by artists, and there are also a 

 cobalt yellow and a cobalt green. Cobalt oxide 

 is used to color glass and enamels blue. 



Cobalt chloride is used as a so-called sympa- 

 thetic ink. If a weak solution of the compound 

 (which is pink) is used to write on rose-colored 

 paper the writing is invisible, but when the 

 paper is gently heated the pink substance 

 turns blue and the writing appears. If a piece 

 of blotting paper or of light calico is dipped 

 into a solution of one part cobalt chloride 

 and ten parts gelatin to 100 parts water, and 

 dried, it will be blue in very dry weather, violet 

 in weather of medium humidity and pink in 

 wet weather, thus serving as a weather indi- 

 cator. The paper or muslin may be cut in 

 the form of a flower or made into a dress for 

 a doll. Such devices are often miscalled "paper 

 barometers" ; they might better be called hygro- 

 scopes. 



The town of Cobalt, Ontario, 330 miles n6rth 

 of Toronto (see below), takes its name from 

 the fact that the silver ores found there con- 

 tain much cobalt. Indeed this is now the 

 chief source of the world's supply of cobalt. 



COBALT, a town in Ontario, the center of 

 the richest silver-producing district in Canada 

 and probably in the world. It is situated on 

 the lake of the same name, 330 miles north 

 of Toronto and 103 miles north of North Bay, 

 with which it is connected by the Timiskaming 

 & Northern Ontario Railway. An electric rail- 

 way runs from Cobalt through Haileybury to 

 Liskeard, about thirteen miles north. The min- 

 eral wealth of the Cobalt district was dis- 

 covered in 1903, and the first claims were 

 worked the next year. Silver, nickel, bismuth, 

 copper, lead, zinc and cobalt were all found 

 in remarkably-rich deposits (see COBALT, 

 above). The silver ores carry as much as 3,000 

 to 4,000 ounces of silver to the short ton. The 

 shipment of silver from Cobalt increased from 

 $136,000 in 1906, the first year of the rush to 

 the mines, to $17,455,000 in 1912, a record for 

 the province and a greater value than the total 



silver output of the Dominion had ever reached 

 previous to that year. 



The town was partly destroyed by fire on 

 June 6, 1912, but was quickly rebuilt. North 

 Cobalt, three miles distant, is also a great 

 silver producer. Population of Cobalt in 1911, 

 5,638; in 1916, about 5,500. 



COBB, IRVIN SHREWSBURY (1876- ), a 

 newspaper man, author and dramatist, born at 

 Paducah, Kentucky. He received his early 

 training in journalism as shorthand reporter 

 for various papers and as a contributor to 

 humorous week- 

 lies. When nine- 

 teen years of age 

 he became editor 

 of the Paducah 

 News. In 1904, 

 after several 

 years' newspaper 

 work in various 

 cities of Ken- 

 tucky, he re- 

 moved to New 

 York City, where 



IRVIN COBB 



he became a special and humorous writer on 

 the Evening Sun and the New York World. 

 After the outbreak of the War of the Na- 

 tions in 1914 he represented the Philadelphia 

 Saturday Evening Post as war correspondent 

 in Europe; and in 1915 lectured in all the 

 leading cities of the United States on his 

 experiences at the front. His many contri- 

 butions to war literature include two books, 

 Europe Revised and the Paths of Glory. Mr. 

 Cobb has written vaudeville sketches and 

 monologues, as well as several plays, includ- 

 ing The Campaigner, Funabashi and Mr. Busy- 

 body. He is also the author of several books, 

 among them Back Home, Roughing It De 

 Luxe and Old Judge Priest. 



Cobb's writings have a freshness and an orig- 

 inality which give his readers constant delight. 

 People read what he writes both to be amused 

 and to be informed. An example of his blend- 

 ing of fact and fancy occurs in an essay on 

 Kentucky, his native state, written in 1916: 



The state of Kentucky is shaped like a camel 

 lying down. The straw that broke the camel's 

 back was the first time the state went Repub- 

 lican. 



COB 'DEN, RICHARD (1804-1865), an English 

 statesman and political economist who is known 

 as the "apostle of free trade." His father was 

 too poor to give him a good education, and at 

 the age of fifteen the boy found work in a 



