My copy of "Mellor's Modern Inorganic Chemistry", 1939 revision,
reprinted 1947, says the following about the history of cobalt:
"The word 'kobalt' occurs in the writings of Paracelsus [ Theophrastus
Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493-1541] to denote a goblin supposed
by the old Teutons and Scandinavians to haunt the mines, destroying
the work of the miners and giving them a lot of unnecessary trouble.
The word is derived from the German kobald, an evil spirit. The church
service in some mining districts once included a prayer that God would
preserve the miners and their work from kobalds and other evil spirits.
The term was applied to what were called 'false ores', that is, ores which
did not give metals when treated by the processes then in vogue for the
extraction of metals; and also to ores which had an objectionable smell.
The term was gradually confined to the minerals used for colouring glass
blue and which are still used for making smalt. In 1735 Brandt stated that
the blue colouring principle is due to the presence of a peculiar metal or
semi-metal which he called 'cobalt rex', hence our 'cobalt'. Brandt
isolated
the metal in 1742."
Tony Brewis
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