Copperheads

“ Next to gold, silver, and platinum, copper is the most malleable and ductile of metals; it may be drawn into wires as fine as hair, or beaten into leaves as thin as those of silver. The rust of copper is very poisonous. Copper, mixed with a certain quantity of tin, forms bell-metal. With a smaller proportion, it forms bronze, a substance used in sculpture for casting figures and statues. It is an abundant metal, and is found in various parts of the world. Native oxides of copper are found in Cornwall, Siberia, and in North and South America. ”

“ Now, we know that copper is found in the mines in a state of such comparative purity as to require very little smelting for the purpose of being brought into a state fit for use, while, on the other hand, iron in its rough state looks more like a stone than a metal, and, moreover, before it can be worked at all, must be subjected to a difficult process of smelting by means of a very powerful fire. If we look at the question only on this side, we are forced to conclude, that copper must have been found and employed before iron. ”

“ In the reduction of the oxides of this group, no sublimate is visible upon the charcoal.
(a.) Copper (Cu) .—This metal occurs in the metallic state, also as the protoxide, and as oxides combined with acids in different salts (carbonate of copper as malachite, etc.) The sulphide of copper is the principal ore of copper occurring in nature. In the metallic state, copper is of a red color, has great lustre and tenacity, is ductile and malleable, and crystallizes in octahedrons and cubes. It melts at a bright red heat, is more difficult than silver to fuse, but fuses more readily than gold. ”

“ The alloys of copper and tin may be decomposed by dissolving them in an acid, the muriatic for instance, and immersing a sheet of iron, which will precipitate the copper. The tin may then be separated by immersing a plate of lead, or zinc, by either of which metals, it will be precipitated.
Bronze, being a mixed metal, in which the copper forms the principal ingredient, is sometimes used in fire-works, in lieu of copper or brass; for its effects are similar. By the combustion of bronze filings, we have an oxide of copper and an oxide of tin. ”

“ A white crystaline stone is also found to contain a great quantity of yellow copper. The lodes of copper ore generally lie deeper than those of tin, and its ores are mostly of the pyritous and sulphurated kinds, with more or less arsenic. “The lodes, both of tin and copper, appear most frequently to have granite for their country, and to make an angle from 60° to 76° with the horizon.” The matrices of copper ore are very numerous. Among the blue ores, there is one of an extremely fine blue earth. ”

“ They do not seem to have understood the art of melting copper, or even of forging it hot, but to have treated it as a kind of malleable stone, which they got in pieces out of the ground, or knocked off from the great natural blocks, and hammered into knives, chisels, axes, and ornaments. The use of native copper was by no means confined to the Mound Builders, for the European explorers found it in use for knives, ice-chisels, ornaments, etc., in the northern part of the Continent, especially among the Esquimaux and the Canadian Indians. ”

“ Copper may be separated, in a state of great purity, from ANTIMONY, ARSENIC, BISMUTH, LEAD, IRON, TIN, ZINC, &c., as it exists in bell-metal, brass, bronze, gun-metal, mosaic gold, and other commercial alloys, by fusing it in a crucible for about half an hour, along with copper scales (black oxide) and ground bottle-glass, or other like flux. The pure metal is found at the bottom of the crucible, whilst the impurities are either volatilised or dissolved in the flux. The proportions for refining commercial copper are, metal, 10 parts ”

“ The question however suggests itself whether metallurgy did not find its natural beginning there, as elsewhere, in the easy working of the virgin copper, and so intercalate a copper age between Europe’s stone, and its true Bronze Period. On this subject Dr. Latham remarks, in his Ethnology of the British Islands, “Copper is a metal of which, in its unalloyed state, no relics have been found in England. Stone and bone first; then bronze, or copper and tin combined; but no copper alone. I cannot get over this hiatus; cannot imagine a metallurgic industry beginning with the use of alloys.” ”

“ Certain implements are, indeed, rough stone, and others polished, but between them are intermediate specimens, and both kinds seem to have been sometimes in use at the same moment with the same people. Again, the introduction of bits of copper in some of the earlier graves precedes the fashioning of copper axes. It is a similar question to that as to species. It is not necessarily each time a different people, but sometimes the same, at first using a more simple and then a more complex implement. ”

“ The copper was, no doubt, recognised as a malleable rock, differing from all others in its ductility, so that it could be fashioned, with the aid of a hammer-stone, to any desired form. By this means the ancient miners of Lake Superior provided themselves with the most suitable tools for their mining operations, and were probably the manufacturers of most of the widely diffused copper implements. But for general purposes, both of industry and war, American man had to be content with the more abundant chert, hornstone, and quartzite. ”

“ The richest deposits of native copper are those of Lake Superior, in North America. More frequently and more abundantly it occurs as an ore, e.g. red oxide, black oxide, green carbonate of copper or mal′achite, blue carbonate of copper, vitreous sulphide of copper, purple copper, copper pyrites, or yellow copper ore, with sulphur, antimony, or arsenic, and other metals (true grey copper ore or fah′lerz) , as an impure hydrated silicate (chrys′ocolla) , and as an impure hydrated oxychloride (atac′amite) . The most abundant and important ore is copper pyrites. ”

“ In fact we know for certain that such an independent Copper Age was developed not only in the region of the Great Lakes of North America, but also amongst the Bantu peoples of Katanga and other parts of Central Africa. Copper is not an alloy like bronze, but a [Pg 24] soft, easily-worked metal occurring in large quantities and in a tolerably pure state near the surface in many parts of the world. ”

“ It is then, in his opinion, the solution of the metal—the wear of its surface, by keeping it smooth, which prevents the adhesion of foreign matter. Whenever the copper is unequally worn, deposits will, without doubt, rest in the rough parts, or depressions in the metal, and afford a soil or bed in which sea-weeds can fix their roots, and to which zoophytes and shell-fish can adhere; but there is another cause of foulness on the protected sheathing, arising from the deposit of earthy matter upon the copper, in consequence of its electro-negative condition. ”

“ Reviewing all the facts attesting a Copper Age in Central Europe, Egypt, Italy, Cyprus, Troy, Scandinavia, North Asia, and other lands, he concludes that a Copper Age may have sprung up independently wherever the ore was found, as in the Ural and Altai Mountains, Italy, Spain, Britain, Cyprus, Sinai ”

“ The roasted ore is then smelted to a mixture of copper and iron sulphides, known as copper “matte” or “coarse-metal,” which contains little or no arsenic, antimony or silica. The coarse-metal is now smelted, with coke and siliceous fluxes (in order to slag off the iron) , and the product, consisting of an impure copper sulphide, is variously known as “blue-metal,” when more or less iron is still present, “pimple-metal,” when free copper and more or less copper oxide is present, or “fine” or “white-metal,” which is a fairly pure copper sulphide, containing about 75% of the metal. ”

“ After taking out a somewhat rumpled shirt, a suit of underclothes and a couple of pair of socks, Prawle said:
“Now, young gents, I’m going to show you some of the finest specimens of real virgin copper ever dug out of mother earth.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Charlie, a slight shade of disappointment in his voice, “I thought it was gold or silver quartz you had there. But copper——”
“Young man,” said Prawle, diving one hairy paw into his grip and fishing out a magnificent specimen of raw copper, “look at that and hold your breath. There is ninety per cent of copper in that hunk. Think of that! ”

“ Copper by itself is so soft that it would not be of much use to man, except the experience they would gain of melting and molding. In our own country the aboriginal inhabitants were well acquainted with copper, and even knew how to mold it. Yet, except as just pointed out, it is not probable that it exerted any marked influence on their development.7 In the old world supplies of native copper are limited, and recourse must be had to the ores of copper. Now these ores, such as copper-pyrites, are nearly always of a bright color, and as such would attract the attention of primitive man. ”

“ The cabinet of John Williams, Esq. at Scorrier House, near Redruth, is unrivalled in its specimens of red oxide of copper in octohedrons, cubes, and capillary crystals; there are also some fine specimens of arseniate of copper in very perfect obtuse octohedrons; a mass of uranite, which for size and beauty surpasses any that has ever been found: blende in octohedrons and cubes, native and ruby silver, besides a very rare and highly valuable specimen of the muriate of horn silver and arseniate of lead in six-sided prisms. ”

“ Here are also two very rare and curious specimens of yellow and grey sulphuret of copper, in forms resembling a cube, the latter being pseudomorphous.
The Royal Geological Society at Penzance possessed many valuable and rare specimens; among the earthy species may be enumerated, calcedony, sodalite, haiiyne, petalite, colophonite, vesuvian, &c. In the metallic branch, is carbonate of lead, specular iron, arseniate of iron, the oxide, carbonate, arseniate and phosphate of copper, native gold, found in the Cornish Tin Stream Works ”

“ While attending to the active and complicated business of the copper-works, making all the assays of ores, fluxes, furnace slags, and of the crude copper produced, he found time to make many interesting and important metallurgical researches, and many scientific observations and [Pg 41] experiments on the formation of artificial minerals, both in the furnace and in the roasting heaps of copper ores. He produced a new mineral, composed of the sulphurets of zinc and copper, which was found in brilliant black crystals in the roasted ores. ”

“ Sometimes native copper, and carbonate of copper, are also present in the same specimen. In some instances, a partial decomposition has taken place, converting its green color into greenish-white, or perfect white, and rendering it so soft as to be cut with a knife. Sometimes the grains or masses of native copper are interspersed among the prehnite, and slender threads of this metal occasionally pass through the aggregated mass of greenstone, prehnite, &c., so that, on breaking it, the fragments are still held together by these metallic fibres. ”

“ While tin is rare throughout the world, it is very different with copper, the ores of which are found at a great number of points. The mines of Sinai, not to mention more distant ones, were celebrated in ancient Egypt. The extraction of metallic copper from its ores is also easy. Reasoning from these facts, many archaeologists have supposed that an age of pure copper, or an age in which arms and tools were made of this metal, preceded the bronze age. ”

“ Then others took up the hostile chorus. “We've got some pitch a-heatin' round in the back yard!” “You won't catch cold; there's plenty o' feathers!” “Tell the Irishman here's some more ears for him to chaw on!” “Come out an' take your Copperhead medicine!”
There were yet other cries which the howling wind tore up into inarticulate fragments, and then a scattering volley of cheers, again emphasized by pistol-shots. While the crack of these still chilled my blood, a more than usually violent gust swooped round Abner's burly figure, and blew out the lamp. ”

“ If the copper be varnished, or covered with a coat of wax, they will not deposit themselves or go together at all; but where they find the clean surface of the metal, they at once not only settle, but fix and adjust themselves in their proper forms, building up as it were a metal structure, not eccentric or uneven, but forming a correct plate of new metal, so pure, so hard, and so free from defect or extraneous matter, that engravers prefer copper plates thus formed to any other for working upon. ”

“ Fox adds,—"There are, however, many instances of tin ore accompanying copper ore to a great depth; and in Dolcoath mine it is found in a copper lode more than 200 fathoms below the surface, and even under the copper." Mr. Carne observes,—"In general an ochreous oxide of iron (gossan) is found in the upper part of the copper veins, to which sulphuret of iron ('mundic') frequently succeeds, below which the miners confidently expect to obtain copper ore." ”

“ The uses of copper are numerous and important. When rolled into sheets, betwixt large iron cylinders, it is employed for the covering of houses, sheathing the bottoms of ships, and other purposes. As a covering for houses, copper is lighter than slate, but whether it be more durable has not been yet ascertained. The coppering of ships tends to facilitate their progress through the water, by presenting a smoother surface than that of wood, and not permitting shell animals to fasten to it as they do to wood. ”

“ As has been already observed, considerable quantities of wrought, and some small fragments of unwrought native copper, have been extracted from the mounds. Axes, as we have seen, have been found, wrought from a single piece, weighing upwards of two pounds each. The metal appears, in all cases, to have been worked in a cold state. This is the more remarkable from the fact that, in some instances, the fires upon the altars were sufficiently intense to melt down the copper implements and ornaments deposited upon them. ”