smalt

[smawlt]

noun

a coloring agent made of blue glass produced by fusing silica, potassium carbonate, and cobalt oxide, used in powdered form to add color to vitreous materials.

Origin of smalt

1550–60; < Middle French < Italian smalto smalto

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Examples from the Web for smalt

Historical Examples of smalt

The inferior kinds of smalt are occasionally adulterated with chalk.
Field's Chromatography
George Field
This blue is distinguished from smalt by dissolving in acetic acid.
Field's Chromatography
George Field
Ultimately the goods are mill-washed, blued with smalt and dried.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 1
Various
Zaffre is the roasted mineral ground with sand, while smalt, a term used more frequently, is the fused mixture with sand.
De Re Metallica
Georgius Agricola
The smalt is usually composed of one part of calcined cobalt, fused with two parts of powder of flint and one of pot-ash.
Heads of Lectures on a Course of Experimental Philosophy: Particularly Including Chemistry
Joseph Priestley

British Dictionary definitions for smalt

smalt

noun

a type of silica glass coloured deep blue with cobalt oxide
a pigment made by crushing this glass, used in colouring enamels
the blue colour of this pigment

Word Origin for smalt

C16: via French from Italian smalto, of Germanic origin; related to smelt 1

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