Copper [7440-50-8], the red metal, apart from gold the only metallic

element with a color different from a gray tone, has been known
since the early days of the human race. It has always been one of
the significant materials, and today it is the most frequently used
heavy nonferrous metal. The utility of pure copper is based on its
physical and chemical properties, above all, its electrical and
thermal conductivity (exceeded only by silver), its outstanding
ductility and thus excellent workability, and its corrosion resistance
(a chemical behavior making it a half-noble metal).
Its common alloys, particularly brass and bronze, are of great
practical importance ( Copper Alloys). Copper compounds and
ores are distinguished by bright coloration, especially reds, greens,
and blues ( Copper Compounds). Copper in soil is an essential
trace element for most creatures, including humans.
Etymology. According to mythology, the goddess Venus (or
Aphrodite) was born on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus,
formerly Kypros (Greek), where copper was exploited millennia
before Christ. Therefore, in early times the Romans named it
cyprium, later called cuprum. This name is the origin of copper and
of the corresponding words in most Romance and Germanic
languages, e.g., cobre (Spanish and Portuguese), cuivre (French),
Kupfer (German), koper (Dutch), and koppar (Swedish).
History [21-24]. The first metals found by Neolithic man were gold
and copper, later silver and meteoric iron. The earliest findings of
copper are presumed to be nearly nine millennia old and came from
the region near Konya in southern Anatolia (Turkey). Until recently
the six-millennia-old copper implements from Iran (Tepe Sialk) were
presumed to be the oldest. In the Old World, copper has been
worked and used since approximately
Empirical experience over millennia has led to an astonishing knowledge of copper
metallurgical operations:
1. Native copper was hardened by hammering (cold working) and softened by moderate heating
(annealing).
2. Heating to higher temperatures (charcoal and bellows) produced molten copper and made
possible the founding into forms of stone, clay, and later metal.

3. Similar treatment of the conspicuously colored oxidized copper ores formed copper metal.
4. The same treatment of sulfide copper ores (chalcopyrite), however, did not result in copper
metal, but in copper matte (a sulfidic intermediate). Not before 2000 B.C. did people succeed in
converting the matte into copper by repeated roasting and smelting.
5. In early times, bronze (copper tin alloy) was won from complex ores, the Bronze Age
beginning ca. 2800 B.C. At first, copper ores were smelted with tin ores; later, bronze was
produced from metallic copper and tin. Brass (copper zinc alloy) was known ca. 1000 B.C.
and became widely used in the era of the Roman Empire.