#561 Copper Demons

 Fun Fact #561

Copper Demons

To Start off with, Welcome Back everyone! I Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

While you hopefully had everything go according to plan during the holidays, sometimes things don’t always go according to plan such as the case for some German miners during the 15th century.  At the time Copper was very valuable making Malachite highly sought after since it contains around 57% Copper. Thus miners loved it when they came across the ore’s greenish color in the mines, but in Germany more often than not they’d bring this green ore up to the daylight only to realize it was the wrong shade and copper couldn’t be smelted from the ore. 

In frustration this pale-green ore began being referred to as “Kupfernickel” which translates to “Copper Demons”. Nickel was a type of mischievous demon in German Mythology at the time. Later in 1751 a Swedish Metallurgist named  Axel Fredrik Crondset  discovered a “new” element in the mineral niccolite and learning that it was contained in various ores the Germans referred to as “Demons” he figured why not name it after that shared suffix. Thus The German word for Demon: Nickel became a known element.  

Fun Fact #562

Wizard’s Hue

In the 16th Century the Region of Saxony began to notice a drastic decline in production from their Silver mines. Several of the mines began to find that their deeper veins gave way to a “Fool’s Silver” which when they attempted to smelt it released foulsmelling and highly toxic arsenic. They began referring to ores with streaks of silver which gave off this gas as “Kobold Ore” which literally translates to “Goblin Ore”. 

Yet during this brief time of history one resident of the German town Schneeberg began to experiment with it when he had free time. This free time inevitably often wound up occurring near dusk and thus several of the townspeople began to suspect the young man of “Being a Wizard” and upon confrontation it was revealed he had learned how to make previously unknown shade of blue. Which gave rise to the rhyme: “The Wizard’s Hue is Cobalt Blue.” 

Later in 1735 it was also discovered that this Kobold Ore was in fact its own element and thus the new element was named: Cobalt. . . . Asides from the Brothers Grimm (yes the world renown story tellers) there is no clear reason given why the spelling was so different.  However in the year 2000 around 35,000 metric tons of refined Cobalt were produced worldwide with around 45% of it used in Aerospace. 

As for the Color Cobalt Blue, unfortunately Germany was not the first recorded use of this pigment (that belongs to the Chinese porcelain trade) it was the brightest variation and the color is still made to this day. Some places you may see it in use including Cars (Jeep and Bugatti), Sega’s Logo and their title character Sonic The Hedgehog, and the flags to The Netherlands, Romania, and The US State of Nevada.

Fun Fact #563 (Bonus and Admittedly a Little Geeky Fun Fact!)

Ultra Vs Cobalt

Just because we’ve covered German Demons and Kobolds this week, why not end the week by bringing up Trolling? Especially seeing as I know a number of you are big Warhammer 40k fans.  In John Varley’s 1818 book “List of Colors” Cobalt Blue was put as “the superior alternative” to Ultramarine. Because of this it is the only color which Games Workshop officially banned from use on their game models –as an April Fool’s Day Joke– since Ultramarines are their best selling faction in the entire 40k line. 

However the Fan community took this joke a little too enthusiastically. Which is why if you go to a Fan page for the Ultramarine faction and point this out it still results in cries of “Hersey!”, “Exterminatus!” and then meme wars for a few hours. When the memes simmer down you can then point out how the official example models from the 2020 release of 9th Edition were painted Cobalt Blue. 

Which is why it's an easy way to Troll them at Ultramarines Fans. I know this Because one of my brothers was an Ultramarine’s fan and it proved to be a great way to poke fun at him for awhile. Anyway thank you and please have a wonderful day!