Old Nick’s copper

German Nickel, Satan or Old Nick s and from kupfernickel. Old Nick s copper) Cronstedt discovered nickel in 1751 in kupfernickel (niccolite). 

An alloy of nickel was known in China over 2000 years ago, and Saxon miners were familiar with the reddish-coloured ore, NiAs, which superficially resembles CU2O. These miners attributed their inability to extract copper from this source to the work of the devil and named the ore Kupfemickel (Old Nick s copper). In 1751 A. F. Cronstedt isolated an impure metal from some Swedish ores and, identifying it with the metallic component of Kupfemickel, named the new metal nickel . In 1804 J. B. Richter produced a much purer sample and so was able to determine its physical properties more accurately. 

Nickel has properties like cobalt s, and it was also used to color glass, coloring it green rather than blue. The name nickel is derived from German copper miners name for nickel ore, kupfernickel ( Old Nick s copper ). Copper ore and nickel ore look very much alike, and the miners believed that the nickel ore had been planted in mines by the devil to deceive them. 

Nickel was isolated first and recognized as an element by Cronstedt in 1751. The metal was derived in pure form by Richter in 1804. The metal takes its name from two German words Nickef and kupfemickef, which mean Old Nick s (or Satan) and Old Nick s copper, respectively. 

Nickel is the only element named after the devil. The name comes ftom the German word Kupfemickel, meaning Old Nick s copper, a term used by German miners. They tried to remove copper ftom an ore that looked like copper ore, but they were unsuccessful. Instead of copper, they got slag, a useless mass of earthy material. The miners believed the devU ( Old Nick ) was playing a trick on them. So they called the fake copper ore Old Nick s copper. 

Cobalt was discovered in 1737 and nickel about 14 years later. Cobalt and nickel ores previously had been mistaken for copper ore. Since they refused to yield copper, these ores obviously were possessed by evil spirits and thus had gained the names Kobold (goblin) and Kupfemickel (Old Nick s copper). And the names persisted. 

Few minerals resemble copper in appearance one of the best known and most important of these was known to German miners and was used to colour glass green. Although repeatedly worked for copper, that metal could never be extracted from it the doctrine of signatures had broken down. Not that Nature herself was at fault it was the Devil who had deliberately tinted the mineral in order to mislead the poor miner. So the mineral was called Kupfer-nickel, that is false copper, pseudo copper, or, more literally, Old Nick s copper. 

Nickel is a silver-white, lustrous metal. It was first isolated by Swedish chemist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt in 1751. Cronstedt had been attempting to isolate copper from a mineral called niccolite (the German word kupfer-nickel means Devil s copper or Old Nick s copper ). He instead found nickel, which he named after the mineral. 

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