Copper in History
Copper Fact 15
Most modern-day hull protection for boats and ships is accomplished using specially formulated copper-based paints. They inhibit the attachment of barnacles, zebra mussels, slime and algae, and other biotic and aquatic organisms, enabling great speed and efficiency for water vessels.
Copper Fact 16
Zebra mussels, brought to North America on freighters from Europe, are kept from clogging the water intakes of power companies around the Great Lakes through the use of copper alloy screens that reject their attachment and impede growth. Copper sulfate crystals are used to treat the water in other infested areas.
Copper Fact 17
A copper strip barrier can keep snails and slugs from entering your garden. The slime they generate creates an electrical charge when contacting the copper and discourages the pests from crossing. Mount the strips around the perimeter of garden beds or containers, and be sure overhanging foliage does not provide an alternative path.
Copper Fact 18
The boilers on Robert Fulton's steamboats were made from copper.
Copper Fact 19
Copper cookware is the most highly regarded by chefs around the world. Its noted advantages - high heat transfer (the highest of any material used in cooking) plus uniform heating (no hot spots).
Copper Fact 20
Restaurateurs, hoteliers and interior decorators look to copper and brass as naturally inviting metals that make a statement of quality, comfort and beauty.
Copper Fact 21
Some things never change. Ten thousand years ago, cave dwellers used copper axes as weapons and tools for survival. Today, high tech surgeons save lives and precious blood by using copper-clad scalpels. The copper conducts an electric current that heats the scalpel to make it self-cauterizing.
Copper Fact 22
The first copper deposit worked extensively in America (by non-native Americans) is located in Granby, Connecticut. It was operated from 1705 until 1770.
Copper Fact 23
Copper and brass tokens are used in slot machines, video and other amusement games, public transportation, bridges and toll roads, laundry and dry cleaning machines, rental golf carts, buckets of balls at driving ranges, and as commemorative medallions, among other uses.
Copper Fact 25
The penny contains only 2.6% copper. In 1982, the U.S. Mint converted production of the 95% copper penny to a predominantly zinc alloy, but coated it with copper to preserve its appearance.
Copper Fact 26
The U.S. nickel is actually 75% copper. The dime, quarter, and half dollar coins contain 91.67% copper.
Copper Fact 27
Copper reinforcing rivets for denim jeans, now standard on most brands of jeans originated in 1873 when a customer of Jacob Davis, a Reno, Nevada, tailor complained that his pants pockets kept on ripping. Davis' solution was to use copper rivets to reinforce the pockets and other points of stress on the jeans manufactured by Levi Strauss & Company, San Francisco. The solution was so successful that Davis decided to patent the concept. Since the patent expired in 1891, many manufacturers of work clothes reinforce their products with copper rivets.
Copper Fact 28
On July 4, 2005, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft jettisoned a 770 pound, solid copper bullet into the comet Tempel 1. A camera and infrared spectrometer on the spacecraft, along with ground based observatories, analyzed the resulting icy debris, as well as the comet's interior material exposed by the impact and were able to determine the composition of one of the oldest objects in the solar system. Copper was used because it of its unique ability to not generate confusing emission lines in the spectroscopic images being analyzed.
