43i 
COP 
COP 
C OF 
(he oil to dissolve the copal. The solution, 
mixed with a little poppy oil, forms a var- 
nish which is distinguished from the vernis 
martin- merely in having a very slight tinge 
of brown. 
The method of dissolving copal in oil of 
turpentine, published by Mr. Sheldrake, 
seems to depend upon the same principle 
with the last solution. On two ounces of co- 
pal, broken into small pieces, is poured a 
mixture of four ounces of ammonia, with a 
pint of oil of turpentine. The whole is kept 
boiling very gently, so that the bubbles may 
be counted as they rise. If the heat is al- 
lowed to diminish, or if it is raised too high, 
the process stops, and cannot be again re- 
sumed. The matrass in which the mixture 
is boiled, is stopped with a cork, secured 
its place by a brass wire, and perforated by a 
pin. When the copal is nearly dissolved, the 
process is stopped, and the whole allowed to 
cool before uncorking the matrass. This var- 
nish lias a deep colour; but when spread 
thin and allowed to dry, it becomes colour- 
less. Its defect is the difficulty with which it 
■dries. This defect Mr. Sheldrake remedies 
bv throwing the solution into its own weight 
hi books ; and those only translations of the 
scriptures, and of ecclesiastical offices, or 
others that have a relation thereto ; the lan- 
guage now used over all the country being 
the Arabic. 
Coptic monks, religious, among the 
Christians of Egypt, who have the highest 
veneration for a monastic life, considering it as 
the philosophy of the law of Jesus Christ, and 
the monks as terrestrial angels or celestial 
men. They are obliged to part with their 
possessions, to renounce marriage for ever, 
to live in deserts, to be clothed in wool, and 
to eat no meat. 
COPIA LIBELLI DELIBERANDA, a Writ 
that lies where a person cannot get the 
copy of a libel from a judge of the spiritual 
court. 
COPING or copping of a tvall, in archi- 
tecture, the top or covert of a v\ all, made 
sloping to carry off the wet. 
COPPER, a metal next to iron in specific 
gravity, but lighter than gold, silver, or 
lead . 
If we except gold and silver, copper seems 
to have been more early known than any other 
metal. In the first ages of the world, before 
of nut oil, rendered drying by white-lead, j the method of working iron was discovered, 
rand agitating till the turpentine is separated, j copper was the principal ingredient in all do- 
To dissolve copal in alcohol Mr. Sheldrake 1 mestic utensils and instruments of war. Even 
dissolves half an ounce of camphor in a during the Trojan war, as we learn from 
pint of that liquid, and pours the solution Homer, the combatants had no other armour 
on four ounces of copal. The matrass is but what was made of bronze, which is a 
placed in a sand-bath, and the process is mixture of copper and tin. The word cu- 
conducted exactly as that last described, prum, or copper, is derived from the island 
The solution thus formed contains a great of Cyprus ; where it was lirst discovered, or 
■deal' of copal, and forms a varnish which is at least wrought to any extent, by the 
perfectly colourless ; but considerable heat , Greeks. 
is necessary to drive off the camphor. See ! This metal is of a fine red colour, and 
Yarntsh. 1 has a great deal of brilliancy. Its taste is 
COPARCENARY. An estate held in co- styptic and nauseous; and the hands, when 
parcenary, is where lands of inheritance de- rubbed for some time on it, acquire a pecu- 
•scend from the ancestor to two or more per- liar and disagreeable odour. Its specific 
sous. It arises either by common law, or I gravity, when melted, is 8.667 ; but after 
particular custom. By common law, as j being hammered it is 8.9. Its malleability is 
■where a person seised in fee-simple, or fee- , great: it may be hammered out into leaves 
tail, dies, and his next heirs are two or more ! so thin as to be blown about by the slightest 
females, his daughters, sisters, aunts, cousins, ! breeze. Its ductility is also considerable, 
or their representatives; in this case they I Its tenacity is such, that a copper wire 0.078 
shall all inherit: and these coheirs are then ! inch in diameter is capable of supporting 
called coparceners; or, for brevity sake, par- j 302.26 pounds avoirdupois without breaking. 
ceners. Parceners by particular custom are, 
•where lands desc end, as in gavelkind, to all 
the males in equal degree, as sons, brothers, 
uncles, or other kindred ; and in either of 
these cases, all the parceners put together 
make but one heir, and have but one estate 
among them. 2 Black. 137. 
COPE, among ecclesiastical writers, an 
ornament usually worn by chantors and sub- 
chantors, when they officiated in the church 
solemnity. It is also worn by Romish bishops, 
and other ordinaries ; and reaches from the 
shoulders to the feet. 
Cope, among miners, a duty of 6rZ. for 
every load of ore. 
COPERNICAN SYSTEM, that system 
of the world in which the sun is supposed at 
rest in the centre, and the planets, with the 
earth, to move in ellipses round him. See 
- Astronomy. 
COPHTIC, or Coptic language, is that 
spoken by the Cophts ; being the antient lan- 
guage of the Egyptians, intermixed with the 
Greek, and the characters of it being those 
of the Greek. The antient Coptic is now a 
dead language, to be met with no where but 
When heated to the temperature of 27 
Weclgewood, or, according to the calculation 
of Mortimer, to 1450 degrees Fahrenheit, it 
melts, and if the heat is increased it evapo- 
rates in visible fumes. When allowed to 
cool slowly it assumes a crystalline form. The 
abbe Mongez, to whom we owe many va- 
luable experiments on the. crystallization of 
metals, obtained it in quadrangular pyramids, 
often inserted into one another. 
Copper is not altered by water : it is in- 
capable of decomposing it even at a red 
heat, unless air has free access to it at the 
same time ; in that case the surface of the 
metal becomes oxydated. Every one must 
have remarked, that when water is kept in a 
copper vessel, a green crust of verdegris, as 
it is called, is formed on that part of the 
vessel which is in contact with the surface of 
the water. When copper is exposed to the 
air its surface is gradually tarnished ; it be 
comes brown, and is at last covered with a 
dark-green crust. This crust consists' of ox 
yd of copper combined with carbonic acid 
gas. At the common temperature of the 
air, this oxydation of copper goes on but 
slowly; but when a plate of metal is heated 
red-hot, it ip covered in a few minutes with a 
crust of oxyd, which separates spontane- 
ously in small scales when the plate is al- 
lowed to cool. The copper plate contracts 
considerably in cooling, but the crust of 
oxyd contracts but very little ; it is therefore 
broken to pieces, and thrown off, when the 
plate contracts under it. An v quantity of 
this oxyd may be obtained by heating a 
plate of copper, and plunging it alternately 
into cold water. The scales tall down to the 
bottom of the water. 
In a violent heat, or when copper is ex- 
posed to a stream of oxygen and hydrogen 
gas, the metal takes fire and burns with 
great brilliancy, emitting a lively green light: 
of such: Intensity, that the eye can scarcely 
bear the glare. The product is an oxyd of 
copper. 
There are two oxyds of copper at present 
known ; and it does not appear that the me- 
tal is capable of being exhibited in combina- 
tion with more than two doses of oxygen. 
The protoxide is of aline orange-colour ; but 
the peroxide is black, though in combination 
it assumes various shades ot blue, green, and 
brown. 
1. The protoxide of copper was first ob- 
served by Proust ; but we are indebted to 
M. Chenevix, who found it native in Corn- 
wall, for the investigation of its properties. 
It may be prepared by mixing together 57.5 
parts of black oxyd of copper, and 50 parts 
of copper reduced to a fine powder by pre- 
cipitating it from muriatic acid by . an iron 
plate. This mixture is to be triturated in a 
mortar, and put with muriatic acid into a well- 
stopped phial. Heat is disengaged, and al- 
most all the copper is dissolved. When pot- 
ash is dropt into this solution, the orange ox- 
yd of copper is precipitated. But the easiest 
process is to dissolve any quantity of copper 
m muriatic acid by means of heat. The 
green liquid thus obtained is to be put into 
a phial, together with some pieces of rolled 
copper, and the whole is to be corked up 
closely. The green colour gradually disap- 
pears ; the liquid becomes dark brown and 
opaque ; and a number of dirty-white cry- 
stals, like grains of sand, are gradually de- 
posited. When this liquid, •or the crystals, 
are thrown into a solution of potash, the 
orange-coloured oxyd precipitates in ‘abund- 
ance. This oxyd is composed of 88.5 parts 
of copper and 1 1.5 oxygen. It attracts oxy- 
gen with such avidity, that it can scarcely be 
dried without becoming bluish-green, at least 
on the surface : but when once dry it retains 
its colour pretty well. 
2. The peroxide of copper is easily pro- 
cured pure from the scales which are formed 
upon the surface of red-hot copper. These 
scales have a violet-red colour, owing to the 
presence of a little metallic copper upon 
their under surface ; but when kept for some 
time red-hot in an open vessel, they become 
black, and are then pure peroxide of cop- 
per. The same oxyd may be obtained by 
dissolving copper in sulphuric or nitric acid, 
precipitating by means of potash, and th en 
heating the precipitate sufficiently to drive ofif 
any water which it may retain. The .perox- 
ide of copper is composed of 80 parts of cop- 
per and 20 of oxygen. When mixed with 
somewhat less than its own weight of copper 
in powder, and heated to redness, the whole 
