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:
Money is to be the cupel of their worth, as it is of all other classes.
From Tancred Or, The New Crusade by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield
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
These metals are heated until the lead and the copper are consumed, and again, the same weight of each is melted in the same manner in another cupel.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
Lastly, place it in the cupel, which assay can be carried out in the space of half an hour.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
The button which settles at the bottom should be transferred to a cupel, and should be re-melted, in order that the lead may be separated from the silver.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
In the second, the lead button containing the gold or silver is cupelled and the resulting gold or silver button is weighed.
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
M. Marie afterwards took from one of the geodes a pinch of powder weighing about half a gramme, and cupelled a bright dust-shot bead weighing not less than two centigrammes.
From The Land of Midian — Volume 1 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
These concentrates—mostly galena—were smelted in low furnaces and the lead was subsequently cupelled.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
By comparing the weights of the original ore, the cupelled button and the final product, statistics were obtained.
From The Westerners by White, Stewart Edward
If these larger cupels are not at hand the larger buttons will have to be reduced in size by a scorification before cupelling.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
The determination may also be made by cupelling the button of lead got in the dry lead assay.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
Refer to the table on page 105 to find what weight of lead is required for cupelling 1 gram of alloy.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Beringer, Cornelius
The best confirmatory test is made by wrapping the precipitate in a little sheet lead, and cupelling, when the silver will be left in the metallic state, and is easily recognized.
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
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.
