世间万物的存在,必定有其存在的价值和意义,每一个事物的产生必定有其产生的根源,并非凭空而降。
Cobalt 钴
早在约 16 世纪时,萨克森的矿工们发现德国的银矿山有一种和普通矿石的性质不同的矿石(钴矿),它不能用通常的方法去冶炼,因而糟踏了大批的普通矿石。很长时间,这种矿石使人们感到困惑不解,此矿石与铜相似,遇酸变为深兰色溶液。而矿工们就认为这是地里的妖精为了迷惑人们施展的魔法。因此称这种矿石为“精灵”(Kobald)。“科波尔得”(Kobald)一词源自原始的日耳曼神话,在希腊语中表示“淘气的人”(Kobalos),英语中的 koblin(意为“妖魔”)也源于此。后来人们又发现这种矿石可使玻璃 具有深绿色。1735 年,瑞典的化学家布朗特确认钴矿里含有一种遇酸可变成 兰色溶液的新金属,用高温煅烧后提出金属钴。布朗特采用了过去矿工们的 称呼,把新元素命名为 Cobalt,意为“精灵”。汉语译为“钴”,而在德语 中就叫做“Kobalt”。
German kobold means ‘goblin’: and in former times it was believed by German silver miners that impurities in the ore they were extracting, which lessened the value of the silver and even made them ill, were put there by these mischievous creatures. In fact these impurities were a silver-white metallic element, which was named kobalt after a Middle High German variant of kobold (the miners’ sickness was probably caused by the arsenic with which it occurred).