cupel
Americannoun
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a small, cuplike, porous container, usually made of bone ash, used in assaying, as for separating gold and silver from lead.
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a receptacle or furnace bottom in which silver is refined.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a refractory pot in which gold or silver is refined
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a small porous bowl made of bone ash in which gold and silver are recovered from a lead button during assaying
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cupel
1595–1605; < Medieval Latin cūpella, equivalent to Latin cūp ( a ) tub + -ella diminutive suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The cupel, when the lead and copper are wanting, attracts the particles of gold and silver, and absorbs them.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
The third is the most delicate, and by this we weigh the beads of gold or silver, which, when the assay is completed, settle in the bottom of the cupel.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
Then as soon as possible remove the cupel out of the furnace, and take the button out of it while it is still warm, in order that it does not adhere to the ashes.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
After the button has been purged of slag, it is put into the cupel, and the gold and silver are separated from the lead; the gold is parted from the silver with aqua valens.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
The resulting alloy, which is called the lead button, is then submitted to fusion on a very porous support, made of bone-ash, and called a cupel.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7 "Arundel, Thomas" to "Athens" by Various
Effect of Varying Temperature.—0.4 gram of silver was cupelled with 20 grams of lead.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
This should be melted down in a small crucible, and the resulting button of lead cupelled.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
Effect of Varying Lead.—In each experiment 0.4 gram of silver was taken and cupelled with the lead.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
Effect of Copper and Antimony.—0.1 gram of silver was cupelled with 20 grams of lead, and to one batch 0.5 gram of antimony, and to another 0.5 gram of copper was added.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
If the copper bead obtained by fusing upon carbonate of soda be cupelled with assay lead, a silver bead will be obtained.
The gold obtained on cupelling, less any gold and silver originally present in the liquor, would be the measure of the gold dissolving power.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
Gold, Au.—Gold, obtained by cupelling and "parting," is for most purposes sufficiently pure.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
The silver is incorporated with the gold, and at the same time the copper is eliminated, by cupelling with sheet lead.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
Silver, &c., in gold bullion.—The base metals are generally determined by cupelling .5 gram of the alloy with 5 grams of lead.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
Suppose we have an alloy of silver and lead in unknown proportions and that by cupelling two lots of 10 grams each there is got from I. 0.1226 gram of silver, and from II.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
