Copper prehistoric

The first reported use of nickel [7440-02-0] Ni, was in a nickel—copper—2inc alloy produced in China in the Middle Ages and perhaps earlier. Alloys of nickel may have been used in prehistoric times. The metal was first isolated for analytical study in the mid-1700s by Axel Cronstedt, who named it nickel, which derives from the German word kupfemickel, or false copper. 

Copper and copper alloys are amongst the earliest metals known to man, having been used from prehistoric times, and their present-day importance is greater than ever before. Their widespread use depends on a combination of good corrosion resistance in a variety of environments, excellent workability, high thermal and electrical conductivities, and attractive mechanical properties at low, normal and moderately elevated temperatures. 

The reddish metal was already known in prehistoric times. It occasionally occurs as a native metal, but mostly in conspicuous green ores, from which it is extracted relatively easily. It is convenient to work, but not very hard. Not very optimal as a tool ("Otzi the Iceman" had a copper axe with him). Only through the addition of tin is the more useful bronze obtained. Its zinc alloy is the versatile and widely used brass. Copper is one of the coinage metals. Water pipes are commonly made of copper. Its very good thermal and electrical conductivity is commonly exploited (cable ), as well as its durability (roofs, gutters), as the verdigris (basic copper carbonate) protects the metal. Cu phthalocyanines are the most beautiful blue pigments. Seems to be essential to all life as a trace element. In some molluscs, Cu replaces Fe in the heme complex. A 70-kg human contains 72 mg. 

The extraction of the common metals from their ores in antiquity was based mainly on relatively simple equipment and processes. Lumps of copper or iron ore, for example, that may have formed part of a ring of stones around an ancient domestic fire and become embedded in its embers, could have been reduced to metal. It is quite reasonable to conjecture, therefore, that some prehistoric campfire became, quite accidentally, the first metallurgical furnace. All that is needed to convert a campfire into a smelting furnace is a small depression in the ground to receive the molten metal. A furnace of this type is illustrated in Figure 42 (Gowland 1912 Killick 2001). 

Coghlan, H. H. (1951), Notes on the Prehistoric Metallurgy of Copper and Bronze in the Old World, Pitt Rivers Museum, Univ. Oxford, Oxford, UK. 

Figure 9.7 Map of some of the more important prehistoric copper sources in the eastern Mediterranean. (Adapted from Stos-Gale and Gale, 1990 Figure 1, in Thera and the Aegean World III, published with permission of the Thera Foundation, London, and the authors.)... 

Coghlan, H. H. and Case, H. J. (1957). Early metallurgy of copper in Ireland and Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 23 91-123. 

Gersch, H. K., Robertson, J. D., Henderson, A. G., Pollack, D., and Munson, C. A. (1998). PIXE analysis of prehistoric and protohistoric Caborn-Welbom phase copper artifacts from the lower Ohio River Valley. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 234 85-90. 

Copper (Cu, [Kr idU)Asl), name and symbol from Latinaes cyprium (later cuprum), from the island Cyprus, which was a source of this metal for the Romans. The use of copper dates back to prehistoric times. In mythology and alchemy copper was associated with the goddess Venus because of its lustrous reddish colour and one of its earliest applications, which is mirrors. 

Copper - the atomic number is 29 and the chemical symbol is Cu. The name derives from the Latin Cuprum for Cyprus , the island where the Romans first obtained copper. The chemical symbol, Cu, also comes from the Latin cuprum. The element has been known since prehistoric times. 

Zinc is a bluish-white metal, malleable and ductile at 150°C, but at 180°C it changes rapidly so that at 205°C it may be easily powdered remains lustrous in dry air but is slightly tarnished in moist air or in water burns upon heating to vaporization with a bluish flame, forming zinc oxide soluble in acids—slowly when pure but rapidly on contact with copper or platinum soluble in alkalies. Discovery prehistoric. 

The association of the ores of copper with those of other metals is probably the cause of the production of alloys of varying composition by the prehistoric smelters. The earliest copper tools of Britain contain tin those of Hungary up to 4-5 per cent, of antimony.4... 

The identification of fiber preserved as pseudomorphs on prehistoric Amerindian copper objects proved more difficult. Yarn pseudomorphs composed of mineralized fiber bundles typical of some sort of bast fiber were observed, but identification beyond this gross generic classification was not possible (3). The details of construction of twined fabric pseudomorphs also are not well known because the pseudomorphs cannot be turned over for study of the reverse side. Similarly, the particular feather type of feather pseudomorphs cannot, as yet, be classified. 

Prehistoric Copper Artifacts in the Eastern United States... 

The number of artifacts analyzed, although small, is a representative sample of copper from a specific regional and temporal prehistoric population. By limiting the areal distribution of the artifacts chosen for analy-... 

Copper metal has been recognized and used extensively since prehistoric times (Scheme 1), probably beginning around 5000 B.C., or even somewhat earlier. The word copper and the symbol Cu are derived from cuprum, which is believed to have evolved from aes cyprium (the metal of Cyprus). The copper mine on the Island of Cyprus supplied most of the metal for the Romans from about 2500 B.c., although it is now uncertain whether Cyprus was named for the metal or vice versa. ... 

Although the study of materials chemistry is a relatively new entry in both undergraduate and graduate curricula, it has always been an important part of chemistry. An interesting timeline of materials developments from Prehistoric times to the present may be found in Appendix A. By most accounts. Neolithic man (10,000-300 B.C.) was the first to realize that certain materials such as limestone, wood, shells, and clay were most easily shaped into materials used as utensils, tools, and weaponry. Applications for metallic materials date back to the Chalcolithic Age (4,000-1,500 B.C.), where copper was used for a variety of ornamental, functional, and protective applications. This civilization was the first to realize fundamental properties of metals, such as malleability and thermal conductivity. More importantly, Chalcolithic man was the first to practice top-down materials synthesis (see later), as they developed techniques to extract copper from oxide ores such as malachite, for subsequent use in various applications. 

Copper has been known in India from prehistoric times. The technology of its production was also known and is evident from archeological discoveries. In modern times, with increased demands for the metal, there is an urgent need for increased production. The first major attempt to locate and work copper mines in modem times was made by the Indian Copper Corporation which was established in 1924 and started production in 1928. 

---