Cobalt

Co′balt (kō′bŏlt; 277, 74), n. [G. kobalt, prob. fr. kobold, kobel, goblin, MHG. kobolt; perh. akin to G. koben pigsty, hut, AS. cofa room, cofgodas household gods, Icel. kofi hut. If so, the ending -old stands for older -walt, -wald, being the same as -ald in E. herald and the word would mean ruler or governor in a house, house spirit, the metal being so called by miners, because it was poisonous and troublesome. Cf. Kobold, Cove, Goblin.] 1. (Chem.) A tough, lustrous, reddish white metal of the iron group, not easily fusible, and somewhat magnetic. Atomic weight 59.1. Symbol Co.

☞ It occurs in nature in combination with arsenic, sulphur, and oxygen, and is obtained from its ores, smaltite, cobaltite, asbolite, etc. Its oxide colors glass or any flux, as borax, a fine blue, and is used in the manufacture of smalt. It is frequently associated with nickel, and both are characteristic ingredients of meteoric iron.

2. A commercial name of a crude arsenic used as fly poison.

Cobalt bloom. Same as Erythrite. — Cobalt blue, a dark blue pigment consisting of some salt of cobalt, as the phosphate, ignited with alumina; — called also cobalt ultramarine, and Thenard's blue. — Cobalt crust, earthy arseniate of cobalt. — Cobalt glance. (Min.) See Cobaltite. — Cobalt green, a pigment consisting essentially of the oxides of cobalt and zinc; — called also Rinman's green. — Cobalt yellow (Chem.), a yellow crystalline powder, regarded as a double nitrite of cobalt and potassium.