Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/451

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COPLEY. 389 COPPER. tion to the Melbourne Ministry in the Uijper House, in speeelies of great power and brillianey. Lyndhursfs orations anj annual reviews of the session did much to reanimate the Conservative Party, and pave the way for their return to power in 1841. He then beeanie Lord Chaneellor for (he third time, and held the Great Seal until the defeat of the I'eel (iovernnient in 1841). After t!iat time he took little part in lionie polities; but his voice was often heard on matters of foreign polie.y, and in denunciation of tyranny in Italy and elsewhere. He died in London, Oetol)er 12, 18G3. Lord Lyndhursfs high at- tainments as a lawyer have never been ques- tioned, and his judgmenis have never been ex- celled for clearness, method, and legal acumen. In the House of Peers he had few equals among his contcm])oraries as a brilliant orator and de- bater. He delivered his last speech in Parliament at the age of eighty-eight with his usual force and ability. Consult Martin, Life of Lord Lynd- Jiiirst (London, 188.3). COP'MANHURST, The Clekk of. An alias of I'riar Tuck in the Rol)in Hood tales. Sir Walter Scott alludes to him by this title in Ira till or. COPPEE, k6'pu', Francois Edouakd Joa- tili.M (1842 — ). A French poet, dramatist, and novelist. He was horn in Paris, January 12, 1842, and was a weak, nervous, sentimental boy, son of a clerk in the War Department. His mother died in his childhood, his father in his youtli. He obtained a Government clerkship, but the sadness and trials of early days left deep impress on his later work. Moments that he could spare from ollico labors were given to poetry, but he first attracted notice by a one- act play, Le passatif (1860). In the Franco-Ger- man War he served in the militia. He had already jiuliHshed three volumes of verse, Le religuaire (1SG6) ; Les intiiuitt's (18(i8) ; and Pocmes mo- dcnies (1869), but first caught the popular ear after the experiences and disasters of the war had prepared him and his public for Les humbles (1872). The next six years bi'ought each its volume of verse, Le cahicr rouge; Olivier; Une idi/lle pendant Ic siege; L'exilee; Les mois; Le Huufrage. During all this period he had been producing dramas, collected in four volumes (1873-86). Of these the more noteworthy are Le luthier de Cremone (1877) and Pour la couronne (1801). His prose tales date chiefly from the eighties. Of these, the best are FiHe de tristesse; Henriette ; Madame Nunu ; and Le cou- cher dc soJcil. He has told his own story in the essentially autobiographical Toute une jeunesse (1890). There is also a series of journalis- tic essays, Mon franc parler (1894). Coppee best deserves study as a poet, for it is the poetic element in his stories and dramas that gives them their charm. He was at first and by instinct an artist in verse, a skilled craftsman, though, perhaps, a little affected; after 1870 his facile suavity yielded to sterner notes in the lyric of democracy, of worlc. poverty, and self- denial, and of the indignant patriotism of de- feat. To this succeeds the gentle idyllic vein with an occasional tragic touch. But whether in prose or verse, he continues the poet of the Parisian workman and the petty trading class. He has happilv described himself as "a man of refinement who enjoys simple people, an aris- tocrat wlio loves the masses." Consult Lcseure, Cvppec, Vhonimc, la vie el I'ceuvrc (Paris, 1888). COP'PEE, Henry (1821-95). An American educator and author, born in Savannah. Ga. He graduated at West Point in 184.5 ; served in the -Mexican War, and was assistant professor at the Jlilitary Academy from 18.50 to 18,55, when he became professor of Knglish literature and history in the University of Pennsylvania. Here he remained for eleven years, after which he was president of Lehigh University until 1875, and a professor there till his death. In 1874 he was appointed a regent of the Smithsonian Institu- tion. Among his pul)Iieations were: Elements of Logie (1857); Gallery of Famous Poets (1858); (Idllcrij of Distinguished I'oetcsses ( ISCO) ; and The Conquest of Spain by the Arab- Moors (1881). He edited two volumes of the Comte de Paris's Civil War in America (1876). COPPER. A metallic element known to the ancients. It is mentioned in the Bible, al- though the term there used is believed to include also brass and bronze. The prehistoric inhab- itants of Xorth America worked the native cop- per deposits of the Lake Superior region. Specimens of metal-work of pure copper have been excavated at the ruins of Troy. Deposits of copper ore on the island of Cyprus were early mined and smelted by the Greeks, and, according to Homer, the combatants in the Trojan War had no other armor than that made of bronze, which is a mixture of copper, tin, and zinc. The Romans learned of it from tlic deposits in Cyprus, and it was originally called by them <t's cyprium, Cyprian brass, a term which was subsequently shortened into cyprium, and then cuprum. It was regarded as the metal speciallj' sacred to Venus, and in the writings of alchemists it is designated by the symbol known as the looking- glass of that goddess. Paracelsus and other early chemists believed that when iron precipi- tates metallic copper from solutions of its salts, a transmutation of iron into copper takes place, and it was not xintil the seventeenth century that chemists recognized the elementary char- acter of copper. Copper is found, either native or comljined, in the following minerals: cuprite (the red oxide) ; tenorite (the black oxide) ; chaleocite (sulphide) ; malachite (the green cop- per carbonate) ; azurite (the blue copper carbon- ate) ; chaleopyrite (copper and iron sulphide) ; bornite (black copper and iron sulphide). In addition to these, copper is found in many min- erals of a more complex composition, such as atacnmite, bournonile, enargile, telrahedrite, etc. It is also found in sea-water and in mineral waters, in seaweed, in the blood of various animals, in eggs, in flowers, in plants that live in soil containing copper, etc. Minerals contain- ing cojiper have a wide distribution, but the chief sources of the world's supply are the United States, Spain. Germany, Japan, Australia, Mex- ico, and Chile. Among these countries which together are responsible for 90 per cent, of the output, the LTnited States stands far in the lead, contributing at present about 55 per cent., while Spain ranks second with little more than 10 per cent, of the total. The world's production of cop- per increased from 260,615 hmg tons in 1800 to 487,90.'? long tons in 101)0, The distribution of the output in the latter year is shown in the