cupel
a small, cuplike, porous container, usually made of bone ash, used in assaying, as for separating gold and silver from lead.
a receptacle or furnace bottom in which silver is refined.
to heat or refine in a cupel.
Origin of cupel
1Other words from cupel
- cu·pel·er [kyoo-puh-ler], /ˈkyu pə lər/, cu·pel·ler [kyoo-pel-er], /kyuˈpɛl ər/, noun
- cu·pel·la·tion, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use cupel in a sentence
The assay depends on first heating the gold ore or alloy with lead in a porous crucible, that is, cupelling it.
Karsten got by actual experiment on cupelling copper and lead in equal proportions, a loss of 21.25 per cent.
A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. | Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob BeringerThe determination may also be made by cupelling the button of lead got in the dry lead assay.
A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. | Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob BeringerThis is one of the cases in which it is desirable to add a small portion of silver before cupelling.
A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. | Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob BeringerIf these larger cupels are not at hand the larger buttons will have to be reduced in size by a scorification before cupelling.
A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. | Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer
British Dictionary definitions for cupel
/ (ˈkjuːpəl, kjʊˈpɛl) /
a refractory pot in which gold or silver is refined
a small porous bowl made of bone ash in which gold and silver are recovered from a lead button during assaying
(tr) to refine (gold or silver) by means of cupellation
Origin of cupel
1Derived forms of cupel
- cupeller, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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