Chapter 22

COPIAPÓ, a city of northern Chile, capital of the province of Atacama, about 35 m. from the coast on the Copiapó river, in lat. 27° 36' S., long. 70° 23' W. Pop. (1895) 9301. The Caldera & Copiapó railway (built 1848-1851 and one of the first in South America) extends beyond Copiapó to the Chañarcillo mines (50 m.) and other mining districts. Copiapó stands 1300 ft. above sea-level and has a mean temperature of about 67° in summer and 51° in winter. Its port, Caldera, 50 m. distant by rail, is situated on a well-sheltered bay with good shipping facilities about 6 m. N. of the mouth of the Copiapó river. Copiapó is perhaps the best built and most attractive of the desert region cities. The river brings down from the mountains enough water to supply the town and irrigate a considerable area in its vicinity. Beyond the small fertile valley in which it stands is the barren desert, on which rain rarely falls and which has no economic value apart from its minerals (especially saline compounds). Copiapó was founded in 1742 by José de Manso (afterwards Conde de Superunda, viceroy of Peru) and took its name from the Copayapu Indians who occupied that region. It was primarily a military station and transport post on the road to Peru, but after the discovery of the rich silver deposits near Chañarcillo by Juan Godoy in 1832 it became an important mining centre. It has a good mining school and reduction works, and is the supply station for an extensive mining district. For many years the Famatina mines of Argentina received supplies from this point by way of the Come-Caballo pass.

COPING (from "cope," Lat. _capa_), in architecture, the capping or covering of a wall. This may be made of stone, brick, tile, slate, metal, wood or thatch. In all cases it should be weathered to throw off the wet. In Romanesque work it was plain and flat, and projected over the wall with a throating to form a drip. In later work a steep slope was given to the weathering (mainly on the outer side), and began at the top with an astragal; in the Decorated style there were two or three sets off; and in the later Perpendicular period these assumed a wavy section, and the coping mouldings were continued round the sides, as well as at top and bottom, mitreing at the angles, as in many of the colleges at Oxford. The cheapest type of coping is that which caps the ordinary 9 in. brick wall, and consists of brick on edge above a double tile creasing, all in cement; the creasing consisting of one or two rows of tiles laid horizontally on the wall and projecting on each side about 2 in. to throw off the water (see also MASONRY).

COPLAND, ROBERT (fl. 1515), English printer and author, is said to have been a servant of William Caxton, and certainly worked for Wynkyn de Worde. The first book to which his name is affixed as a printer is _The Boke of Justices of Peace_ (1515), at the sign of the Rose Garland, in Fleet Street, London. Anthony à Wood supposed, on the ground that he was more educated than was usual in his trade, that he had been a poor scholar of Oxford. His best known works are _The hye way to the Spyttell hous_, a dialogue in verse between Copland and the porter of St Bartholomew's hospital, containing much information about the vagabonds who found their way there; and _Jyl of Breyntfords Testament_, dismissed in _Athenae Oxonienses_ (ed. Bliss) as "a poem devoid of wit or decency, and totally unworthy of further notice." He translated from the French the romances of _Kynge Appolyne of Thyre_ (W. de Worde, 1510), _The History of Helyas Knyght of the Swanne_ (W. de Worde, 1513), and _The Life of Ipomydon_ (_Hue of Rotelande_), not dated. Among his other works is _The Complaynte of them that ben too late maryed_, an undated tract printed by W. de Worde.

William Copland, the printer, supposed to have been his brother, published three editions of _Howleglas_, perhaps by Robert, which in any case represent the earliest English version of _Till Eulenspiegel_.

The _Knyght of the Swanne_ was reprinted in Thom's _Early Prose Romances_, vol. iii., and by the Grolier Club (1901); the _Hye Way_ in W. C. Hazlitt's _Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England_, vol. iv. (1866). See further the "Forewords" to Dr F. J. Furnivall's reprint of _Jyl of Breyntford_ (for private circulation, 1871) and J. P. Collier, _Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language_, vol. i. p. 153 (1865). For the books issued from his press see _Hand-Lists of English Printers_ (1501-1556), printed for the Bibliographical Society in 1896.

COPLESTON, EDWARD (1776-1849), English bishop, was born at Offwell in Devonshire, and educated at Oxford. He was elected to a tutorship at Oriel College in 1797, and in 1800 was appointed vicar of St Mary's, Oxford. As university professor of poetry (1802-1812) he gained a considerable reputation by his clever literary criticism and sound latinity. After holding the office of dean at Oriel for some years, he succeeded to the provostship in 1814, and owing largely to his influence the college reached a remarkable degree of prosperity during the first quarter of the 19th century. In 1826 he was appointed dean of Chester, and in the next year he was consecrated bishop of Llandaff. Here he gave his support to the new movement for church restoration in Wales, and during his occupation of the see more than twenty new churches were built in the diocese. The political problems of the time interested him greatly, and his writings include two able letters to Sir Robert Peel, one dealing with the _Variable Standard of Value_, the other with the _Increase of Pauperism_ (Oxford, 1819).

COPLEY, JOHN SINGLETON (1737-1815), English historical painter, was born of Irish parents at Boston, Massachusetts. He was self-educated, and commenced his career as a portrait-painter in his native city. The germ of his reputation in England was a little picture of a boy and squirrel, exhibited at the Society of Arts in 1760. In 1774 he went to Rome, and thence in 1775 came to England. In 1777 he was admitted associate of the Royal Academy; in 1783 he was made Academician on the exhibition of his most famous picture, the "Death of Chatham," popularized immediately by Bartolozzi's elaborate engraving; and in 1790 he was commissioned to paint a portrait picture of the defence of Gibraltar. The "Death of Major Pierson," in the National Gallery, also deserves mention. Copley's powers appear to greatest advantage in his portraits. He was the father of Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst.

COPPÉE, FRANÇOIS ÉDOUARD JOACHIM (1842-1908), French poet and novelist, was born in Paris on the 12th of January 1842. His father held a small post in the civil service, and he owed much to the care of an admirable mother. After passing through the Lycée Saint-Louis he became a clerk in the ministry of war, and soon sprang into public favour as a poet of the young "Parnassian" school. His first printed verses date from 1864. They were republished with others in 1866 in a collected form (_Le Reliquaire_), followed (1867) by _Les Intimités_ and _Poèmes modernes_ (1867-1869). In 1869 his first play, _Le Passant_, was received with marked approval at the Odéon theatre, and later _Fais ce que dois_ (1871) and _Les Bijoux de la délivrance_ (1872), short metrical dramas inspired by the war, were warmly applauded.

After filling a post in the library of the senate, Coppée was chosen in 1878 as archivist of the Comédie-Française, an office which he held till 1884. In that year his election to the Academy caused him to retire altogether from his public appointments. He continued to publish volumes of poetry at frequent intervals, including _Les Humbles_ (1872), _Le Cahier rouge_ (1874), _Olivier_ (1875), _L'Exilée_ (1876), _Contes en vers_, &c. (1881), _Poèmes et récits_ (1886), _Arrière-saison_ (1887), _Paroles sincères_ (1890). In his later years his output of verse declined, but he published two more volumes, _Dans la prière et la lutte_ and _Vers français_. He had established his fame as "le poète des humbles." Besides the plays mentioned above, two others written in collaboration with Armand d'Artois, and some light pieces of little importance, Coppée produced _Madame de Maintenon_ (1881), _Severo Torelli_ (1883), _Les Jacobites_ (1885), and other serious dramas in verse, including _Pour la couronne_ (1895), which was translated into English (_For the Crown_) by John Davidson, and produced at the Lyceum Theatre in 1896. The performance of a short episode of the Commune, _Le Pater_, was prohibited by the government (1889). Coppée's first story in prose, _Une Idylle pendant le siège_, appeared in 1875. It was followed by various volumes of short tales, by _Toute une jeunesse_ (1890)--an attempt to reproduce the feelings, if not the actual wants, of the writer's youth,--_Les Vrais Riches_ (1892), _Le Coupable_ (1896), &c. He was made an officer of the Legion of Honour in 1888. A series of reprinted short articles on miscellaneous subjects, styled _Mon Franc Parler_, appeared from 1893 to 1896; and in 1898 was published _La Bonne Souffrance_, the outcome of Coppée's reconversion to the Roman Catholic Church, which gained very wide popularity. The immediate cause of his return to the faith was a severe illness which twice brought him to the verge of the grave. Hitherto he had taken little open interest in public affairs, but he now joined the most violent section of Nationalist politicians, while retaining contempt for the whole apparatus of democracy. He took a leading part against the prisoner in the Dreyfus case, and was one of the originators of the notorious Ligue de la Patrie Française. He died on the 23rd of May 1908.

Alike in verse and prose Coppée concerned himself with the plainest expressions of human emotion, with elemental patriotism, and the joy of young love, and the pitifulness of the poor, bringing to bear on each a singular gift of sympathy and insight. The lyric and idyllic poetry, by which he will chiefly be remembered, is animated by musical charm, and in some instances, such as _La Bénédiction_ and _La Grève des forgerons_, displays a vivid, though not a sustained, power of expression. There is force, too, in the gloomy tale, _Le Coupable_. But he exhibits all the defects of his qualities. In prose especially, his sentiment often degenerates into sentimentality, and he continually approaches, and sometimes oversteps, the verge of the trivial. Nevertheless, by neglecting that canon of contemporary art which would reduce the deepest tragedies of life to mere subjects for dissection, he won those common suffrages which are the prize of exquisite literature.

See M. de Lescure's _François Coppée, l'homme, la vie, l'oeuvre_ (1889), and G. Druilhet, _Un Poète français_ (1902).

COPPÉE, HENRY (1821-1895), American educationalist and author, was born in Savannah, Georgia, on the 13th of October 1821, of a French family formerly settled in Haiti. He studied at Yale for two years, worked as a civil engineer, graduated at West Point in 1845, served in the Mexican War as a lieutenant and was breveted captain for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, was professor of English at West Point from 1850 to 1855 (when he resigned from the army), was professor of English literature and history in the University of Pennsylvania 1855-1866, and on the 1st of April 1866 was chosen first president of Lehigh University. In 1875 he was succeeded by John McD. Leavitt and became professor of history and English literature, but was president pro tem. from the death of Robert A. Lamberton (b. 1824) in September 1893 to his own death in Bethlehem on the 22nd of March 1895. He published elementary text-books of logic (1857), of rhetoric (1859), and of English literature (1872); various manuals of drill; _Grant, a Military Biography_ (1866); _General Thomas_ (1893), in the "Great Commanders" Series; _History of the Conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors_ (1881); and in 1862 a translation of Marmont's _Esprit des institutions militaires_, besides editing the Comte de Paris's _Civil War in America_.

COPPER (symbol Cu, atomic weight 63.1, H = 1, or 63.6, O = 16), a metal which has been known to and used by the human race from the most remote periods. Its alloy with tin (bronze) was the first metallic compound in common use by mankind, and so extensive and characteristic was its employment in prehistoric times that the epoch is known as the Bronze Age. By the Greeks and Romans both the metal and its alloys were indifferently known as [Greek: chalkos] and _aes_. As, according to Pliny, the Roman supply was chiefly drawn from Cyprus, it came to be termed _aes cyprium_, which was gradually shortened to _cyprium_, and corrupted into _cuprum_, whence comes the English word copper, the French _cuivre_, and the German _Kupfer_.

Copper is a brilliant metal of a peculiar red colour which assumes a pinkish or yellowish tinge on a freshly fractured surface of the pure metal, and is purplish when the metal contains cuprous oxide. Its specific gravity varies between 8.91 and 8.95, according to the treatment to which it may have been subjected; J. F. W. Hampe gives 8.945 (0°/4°) for perfectly pure and compact copper. Ordinary commercial copper is somewhat porous and has a specific gravity ranging from 8.2 to 8.5. It takes a brilliant polish, is in a high degree malleable and ductile, and in tenacity it only falls short of iron, exceeding in that quality both silver and gold. By different authorities its melting-point is stated at from 1000° to 1200° C.; C. T. Heycock and F. H. Neville give 1080°.5; P. Dejean gives 1085° as the freezing-point. The molten metal is sea-green in colour, and at higher temperatures (in the electric arc) it vaporizes and burns with a green flame. G. W. A. Kahlbaum succeeded in subliming the metal in a vacuum, and H. Moissan (_Compt. rend._, 1905, 141, p. 853) distilled it in the electric furnace. Molten copper absorbs carbon monoxide, hydrogen and sulphur dioxide; it also appears to decompose hydrocarbons (methane, ethane), absorbing the hydrogen and the carbon separating out. These occluded gases are all liberated when the copper cools, and so give rise to porous castings, unless special precautions are taken. The gases are also expelled from the molten metal by lead, carbon dioxide, or water vapour. Its specific heat is 0.0899 at 0° C. and 0.0942 at 100°; the coefficient of linear expansion per 1° C. is 0.001869. In electric conductivity it stands next to silver; the conducting power of silver being equal to 100, that of perfectly pure copper is given by A. Matthiessen as 96.4 at 13° C.

Copper is not affected by exposure in dry air, but in a moist atmosphere, containing carbonic acid, it becomes coated with a green basic carbonate. When heated or rubbed it emits a peculiar disagreeable odour. Sulphuric and hydrochloric acids have little or no action upon it at ordinary temperatures, even when in a fine state of division; but on heating, copper sulphate and sulphur dioxide are formed in the first case, and cuprous chloride and hydrogen in the second. Concentrated nitric acid has also very little action, but with the dilute acid a vigorous action ensues. The first products of this reaction are copper nitrate and nitric oxide, but, as the concentration of the copper nitrate increases, nitrous oxide and, eventually, free nitrogen are liberated.

Many colloidal solutions of copper have been obtained. A reddish-brown solution is obtained from solutions of copper chloride, stannous chloride and an alkaline tartrate (Lottermoser, _Anorganische Colloïde_, 1901).

_Occurrence._--Copper is widely distributed in nature, occurring in most soils, ferruginous mineral waters, and ores. It has been discovered in seaweed; in the blood of certain Cephalopoda and Ascidia as haemocyanin, a substance resembling the ferruginous haemoglobin, and of a species of _Limulus_; in straw, hay, eggs, cheese, meat, and other food-stuffs; in the liver and kidneys, and, in traces, in the blood of man and other animals (as an entirely adventitious constituent, however); it has also been shown by A. H. Church to exist to the extent of 5.9% in turacin, the colouring-matter of the wing-feathers of the Turaco.

Native copper, sometimes termed by miners malleable or virgin copper, occurs as a mineral having all the properties of the smelted metal. It crystallizes in the cubic system, but the crystals are often flattened, elongated, rounded or otherwise distorted. Twins are common. Usually the metal is arborescent, dendritic, filiform, moss-like or laminar. Native copper is found in most copper-mines, usually in the upper workings, where the deposit has been exposed to atmospheric influences. The metal seems to have been reduced from solutions of its salts, and deposits may be formed around mine-timber or on iron objects. It often fills cracks and fissures in the rock. It is not infrequently found in serpentine, and in basic eruptive rocks, where it occurs as veins and in amygdales. The largest known deposits are those in the Lake Superior region, near Keweenaw Point, Michigan, where masses upwards of 400 tons in weight have been discovered. The metal was formerly worked by the Indians for implements and ornaments. It occurs in a series of amygdaloidal dolerites or diabases, and in the associated sandstones and conglomerates. Native silver occurs with the copper, in some cases embedded in it, like crystals in a porphyry. The copper is also accompanied by epidote, calcite, prehnite, analcite and other zeolitic minerals. Pseudomorphs after calcite are known; and it is notable that native copper occurs pseudomorphous after aragonite at Corocoro, in Bolivia, where the copper is disseminated through sandstone.

_Ores._--The principal ores of copper are the oxides cuprite and melaconite, the carbonates malachite and chessylite, the basic chloride atacamite, the silicate chrysocolla, the sulphides chalcocite, chalcopyrite, erubescite and tetrahedrite. Cuprite (q.v.) occurs in most cupriferous mines, but never by itself in large quantities. Melaconite (q.v.) was formerly largely worked in the Lake Superior region, and is abundant in some of the mines of Tennessee and the Mississippi valley. Malachite is a valuable ore containing about 56% of the metal; it is obtained in very large quantities from South Australia, Siberia and other localities. Frequently intermixed with the green malachite is the blue carbonate chessylite or azurite (q.v.), an ore containing when pure 55.16% of the metal. Atacamite (q.v.) occurs chiefly in Chile and Peru. Chrysocolla (q.v.) contains in the pure state 30% of the metal; it is an abundant ore in Chile, Wisconsin and Missouri. The sulphur compounds of copper are, however, the most valuable from the economic point of view. Chalcocite, redruthite, copper-glance (q.v.) or vitreous copper (Cu2S) contains about 80% of copper. Copper pyrites, or chalcopyrite, contains 34.6% of copper when pure; but many of the ores, such as those worked specially by wet processes on account of the presence of a large proportion of iron sulphide, contain less than 5% of copper. Cornish ores are almost entirely pyritic; and indeed it is from such ores that by far the largest proportion of copper is extracted throughout the world. In Cornwall copper lodes usually run east and west. They occur both in the "killas" or clay-slate, and in the "growan" or granite. Erubescite (q.v.), bornite, or horseflesh ore is much richer in copper than the ordinary pyrites, and contains 56 or 57% of copper. Tetrahedrite (q.v.), fahlerz, or grey copper, contains from 30 to 48% of copper, with arsenic, antimony, iron and sometimes zinc, silver or mercury. Other copper minerals are percylite (PbCuCl2(OH)2), boleite (3PbCuCl2(OH)2, AgCl), stromeyerite {(Cu, Ag)2S}, cubanite (CuS, Fe2S3), stannite (Cu2S, FeSnS3), tennantite (3Cu2S, As2S3), emplectite (Cu2S, Bi2S3), wolfsbergite (Cu2S, Sb2S3), famatinite (3Cu2S, Sb2S5) and enargite (3Cu2S, As2S5). For other minerals, see COMPOUNDS OF COPPER below.

_Metallurgy._--Copper is obtained from its ores by three principal methods, which may be denominated--(1) the pyro-metallurgical or dry method, (2) the hydro-metallurgical or wet method, and (3) the electro-metallurgical method.

The methods of working vary according to the nature of the ores treated and local circumstances. The dry method, or ordinary smelting, cannot be profitably practised with ores containing less than 4% of copper, for which and for still poorer ores the wet process is preferred.

_Copper Smelting._--We shall first give the general principles which underlie the methods for the dry extraction of copper, and then proceed to a more detailed discussion of the plant used. Since all sulphuretted copper ores (and these are of the most economic importance) are invariably contaminated with arsenic and antimony, it is necessary to eliminate these impurities, as far as possible, at a very early stage. This is effected by calcination or roasting. 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. This product is re-smelted to form "coarse-copper," containing about 95% of the metal, which is then refined. Roasted ores may be smelted in reverberatory furnaces (English process), or in blast-furnaces (German or Swedish process). The matte is treated either in reverberatory furnaces (English process), in blast furnaces (German process), or in converters (Bessemer process). The "American process" or "Pyritic smelting" consists in the direct smelting of raw ores to matte in blast furnaces. The plant in which the operations are conducted varies in different countries. But though this or that process takes its name from the country in which it has been mainly developed, this does not mean that only that process is there followed.

The "English process" is made up of the following operations: (1) calcination; (2) smelting in reverberatory furnaces to form the matte; (3) roasting the matte; and (4) subsequent smelting in reverberatory furnaces to fine- or white-metal; (5) treating the fine-metal in reverberatory furnaces to coarse- or blister-copper, either with or without previous calcination; (6) refining of the coarse-copper. A shorter process (the so-called "direct process") converts the fine-metal into refined copper directly. The "Welsh process" closely resembles the English method; the main difference consists in the enrichment of the matte by smelting with the rich copper-bearing slags obtained in subsequent operations. The "German or Swedish process" is characterized by the introduction of blast-furnaces. It is made up of the following operations: (1) calcination, (2) smelting in blast-furnaces to form the matte, (3) roasting the matte, (4) smelting in blast-furnaces with coke and fluxes to "black-" or "coarse-metal," (5) refining the coarse-metal. The "Anglo-German Process" is a combination of the two preceding, and consists in smelting the calcined ores in shaft furnaces, concentrating the matte in reverberatory furnaces, and smelting to coarse-metal in either.