Cobalt

Also 7 cobolt, 8 kobold. [a. Ger. kobalt, formerly also kobald, -olt, -old, -elt, -el, app. the same word as kobold, etc., goblin or demon of the mines; the ore of cobalt having been so called by the miners on account of the trouble which it gave them, not only from its worthlessness (as then supposed), but from its mischievous effects upon their own health and upon silver ores in which it occurred, effects due mainly to the arsenic and sulphur with which it was combined. From the miners of the Harz or Erzgebirge the name became common German, and thence passed into all the European langs., F. cobalt, It., Sp., Pg. cobalto, Du., Da., Russ., Pol., Boh., etc., kobalt, Sw. kobolt. See Hildebrand in Grimm s.v., who shows also that the metal was known to Paracelsus (Wks. 1589, VIII. 350), though its discovery is usually credited to Brandt in 1733.]

  1.  One of the chemical elements, a metal of a greyish color inclining to red, brittle, slightly magnetic; in many respects closely resembling nickel; not found native, but extracted from various ores. Symbol Co.

  b.  The name was originally given to the ores of this metal, and is still applied, with or without defining words, to various native compounds, as Tin-white cobalt = SMALTINE, CoAs₂; Grey c., Silver-white c. = cobalt-glance; Red c. = cobalt-bloom, -vitriol (see 3); Earthy c. = ASBOLITE.

[1683.  Pettus, Fleta Min., I. (1686), 34. Concerning the Cobolt oars, there are many sorts of them.]

a. 1728.  Woodward, Fossils, 43. Cobalt is plentifully impregnated with arsenick; contains copper and some silver. Being sublimed, the flores are of a blue colour: these, German mineralists call zaffir.

1738.  G. Smith, Cur. Relations, II. 440. Zink, Kobold, Sleat, and other Productions of the Mines.

1748.  Sir J. Hill, Fossils, I. 625 (J.). The world is oblig’d to Kunkel for the history of the several Arsenics, Zaffre and Smalt, which are the produce of Cobalt.

1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 397. A kind of cobalt, or arsenic mixed with copper.

1863–72.  Watts, Dict. Chem., I. 1039. The use of cobalt for imparting a blue colour to glass, appears to have been known to the Greeks and Romans…. Cobalt is not a very abundant metal.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 874. Smalt is a kind of glass coloured by oxide of cobalt.

  2.  The blue pigment, also called cobalt-blue, prepared from this mineral, largely used in staining glass. Also the deep blue color of this.

1835.  G. Field, Chromatogr., 110. Cobalt blue is the name now appropriated to the improved blue prepared with metallic cobalt.

1872.  Watts, Dict. Chem., I. 1057. Cobalt-blue … is a compound of protoxide of cobalt and alumina, and is used both as oil and water colour.

1877.  Amelia B. Edwards, Up Nile, xviii. 503. The mitre-shaped casque being of a vivid cobalt-blue picked out with gold-colour.

1878.  Black, Green Past., xxxiii. 262. As if some one … had … dashed in a stroke of brilliant cobalt.

  b.  In this sense used attrib. or as adj.

1849.  Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., xix. 181. A dark blue cobalt glass.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxviii. (1854), 237. From a cobalt sky of even tint, the moon ‘shineth down alone.’

  3.  attrib. and Comb., as cobalt-mine, ore; in chemical compounds, as cobalt chloride, fluoride, etc.; in names of colors or pigments prepared from salts of cobalt, as cobalt-blue (see 2), green, ultramarine, yellow; also cobalt-bloom [Ger. kobalt-blüthe], a native hydrated arsenate of cobalt, also called ERYTHRITE, occurring in two forms, crystalline and earthy; cobalt-bronze (see quot. 1875); † cobalt-crust, an obs. name for the earthy variety of cobalt-bloom; cobalt-glance [Ger. kobalt-glanz], a native sulpharsenide of cobalt, silver-white, with metallic luster, also called COBALTITE or COBALTINE; † cobalt-mica = cobalt-bloom; † cobalt-ochre, an obs. name for ASBOLITE and ERYTHRITE; cobalt-pyrites, a name for LINNÆITE, a native sulphide of cobalt; cobalt-speiss (see quot. 1875); cobalt-vitriol, a native sulphate of cobalt, also called Bieberite.

1776.  G. Edwards, Fossilol., 100. Cobalt earth … of a red colour … named *cobalt bloom.

1863–72.  Watts, Dict. Chem., I. 1057. Earthy cobalt-bloom, of peach-blossom colour, is arsenate of cobalt with free arsenious acid.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 875. *Cobalt bronze, a violet-coloured substance, with strong metallic lustre. It consists of phosphate of protoxide of cobalt, and phosphate of ammonia.

1884.  Public Opinion, 3 Oct., 433/1. Cobalt bronze … is a whiter but slightly more expensive metal than silveroid.

1806.  R. Jameson, Min., II. 444. This species contains two subspecies: 1. *Cobalt Crust. 2. Cobalt Bloom. Ibid., II. 436. *Cobalt Glance.

1873.  Watts, Fownes’ Chem., 466. It may be prepared directly from cobalt-glance, the native arsenide.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 875. *Cobalt green … is a compound of oxide of cobalt and oxide of zinc.

1835.  Shepard, Min., *Cobalt mica.

1858.  Buckle, Civiliz. (1869), II. viii. 539. The celebrated *cobalt-mine … in the valley of Gistan in Aragon.

1816.  R. Jameson, Char. Min. (1817), 257. Black and brown *cobalt-ochres.

1844.  Dana, Min., *Cobalt pyrites.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 875. *Cobalt speiss … consisting chiefly of arsenide of nickel, derived from nickel associated with the cobalt ore.

1809.  Allen, Min. Nomen., *Cobalt vitriol.

1863–72.  Watts, Dict. Chem., I. 1058. Cobalt-vitriol … is translucent, with flesh-red or rose-red colour and vitreous lustre.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 875. *Cobalt-yellow, an orange-yellow pigment precipitated from an acidified solution of nitrate of protoxide of cobalt by means of nitrate of potash.