Artificial intelligent assistant

cupel

I. cupel, n.
    (ˈkjuːpəl)
    Also 7–8 coppel, cuppel, (7 copel(l, coppell, -ill, -le).
    [a. F. coupelle (15th c.), med.L. cūpella, dim. of cūpa cask, to which the current form is adjusted.]
    1. A small flat circular porous vessel, with a shallow depression in the middle, made of pounded bone-ash pressed into shape by a mould, and used in assaying gold or silver with lead. Also the similarly-shaped ‘test’ or movable hearth of the reverberatory furnace in which silver is separated from lead by cupellation.

1605 Timme Quersit. i. xvi. 82 Euery goldsmith and mint⁓man..know how to dispearse..such mettals into smoake with their cupels. 1611 Cotgr., Coupelle, a Coppell; the little Ashen pot, or vessell. 1626 Bacon Sylva §799 As wee see in the Stuffe, whereof Coppells are made..Upon which Fire worketh not. 1678 Phil. Trans. XII. 955 It was..first Refined with Lead upon a Copel, for separation of any Copper that might be in it. 1759 B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. II. 232 A large Coppel, where the Lead is now made. 1791 Lane in Phil. Trans. LXXXI. 224 The contents of each paper were placed in separate cupels, under a muffle. 1862 Lond. Rev. 23 Aug. 175 The argentiferous lead..is then submitted to the process of cupellation. This operation is performed in a reverberatory furnace, on the hearth of which is placed the cupel, which is of an oval form about 4 feet long and 2 ½ feet broad.

    b. fig. (Cf. test.)

1673 O. Walker Educ. (1677) 52 Suffering is the great trial and cupel of gallant spirits. 1847 Disraeli Tancred ii. i, Money is to be the cupel of their worth.

    2. attrib. and Comb., as cupel-furnace, cupel-mould; cupel-ashes, cupel-dust, ashes and dust used in purifying metals.

a 1626 Bacon (J.), It may be also tried by incorporating powder of steel, or copple-dust. 1683 Pettus Fleta Min. i. (1686) 9 There must first be a smooth fire-place, and upon that Copell-Ashes are to be laid the breadth or thickness of a finger. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 28 It is employed as a cuppel-furnace by means of a small semicircular aperture. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts III. 822 The cupels are formed in a cupel-mould made of cast steel.

II. cupel, v.
    (ˈkjuːpəl)
    For forms see the n.
    [f. prec. n.; cf. F. coupell-er, f. coupelle: see prec.]
    trans. To assay or refine in a cupel; to subject to cupellation.

1644 [see cupelling]. 1666 Boyle Orig. Formes & Qual., Good Gold having for a certain tryal been cuppel'd with a great deal of Lead. 1754 Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 683 A mixture of platina and lead was cupelled. 1863 F. J. Rickard Mining Journ. Across Andes 267 The pigs of argentiferous lead are next cupelled twice, and afterwards refined in a small bone ash test.

    Hence ˈcupelled ppl. a.

1754 Lewis in Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 685 Upon examining the cupelled matters hydrostatically.

Oxford English Dictionary

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