Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry, 5th ed.

by Pierre Joseph Macquer

When all the Arsenic the Cobalt will yield is thus separated, the earthy fixed matter left behind is mixed with divers fusible matters and vitrified, and produces a glass of a beautiful blue colour. It is called Smalt. This glass is to be prepared in the following manner.

Take four parts of fine fusible sand, an equal quantity of any Fixed Alkali perfectly depurated, and one part of Cobalt from which the Arsenic hath been sublimed by torrefaction. Pulverize these different substances very finely, and mix them thoroughly together; put the mixture into a good crucible, cover it, and set it in a melting furnace. Make a strong fire, and keep it up constantly in the same degree for some hours. Then dip an iron wire into the crucible; to the end of which a glassy matter will stick, in the form of threads, if the fusion and vitrification be perfect. In this case take the crucible out of the fire; cool it by throwing water on it, and then break it. You will find in it a glass, which will be of an exceeding deep blue, and almost black, if the operation hath succeeded. This glass, when reduced to a fine powder, acquires a much brighter and more lively blue colour.

If you find after the operation that the glass hath too little colour, the fusion must be repeated a second time, with twice or thrice the quantity of Cobalt. If, on the contrary, the glass be too dark, less Cobalt must be used.

Instead of the mixture here prescribed you may employ a ready-made glass, providing it be white and fusible. But as glass is always hard to melt, and as the mixing Cobalt with it renders it still more refractory, therefore though an Alkaline Salt be one of the ingredients in its composition, it is proper to promote the fusion, by mixing therewith calcined wine-lees, in the quantity of one third part of the weight of the Cobalt.

In order to make the assay of a particular Cobalt, with a view to know what quantity of blue glass it will yield, it is necessary to perform the operation in the manner here set down; a great deal of time and trouble may be saved by melting one part of Cobalt with two or three parts of Borax. This Salt is very fusible, and turns, when melted, into a substance which, for a time, possesses all the properties of glass. In this trial the glass of Borax will be nearly of the same colour as the true glass, or Smalt, made with the same Cobalt.

The ores of Bismuth, as well as Cobalt, yield a matter that colours glass blue; nay, the Smalt made with these ores is more beautiful than that procured from the ore of pure Arsenic. Some Cobalts yield both Arsenic and Bismuth. When such Cobalts are used, it is common to find at the bottom of the crucible a little button of metallic matter, which is called Regulus of Cobalt. This Regulus is a sort of Bismuth, generally adulterated with a mixture of ferruginous and arsenical parts.

The heaviest and most fixed Flowers of Arsenic, procured from Cobalt, have likewise the property of giving a blue colour to glass. But this colour is faint: it is owing to a portion of the colouring matter carried up along with the Arsenic. These Flowers may be made an ingredient in the composition of blue glass, not only because of the colouring principle they contain, but also because they greatly promote fusion; Arsenic being one of the most efficacious fluxes known.

In short, all those blue glasses, or Smalts, contain a certain quantity of Arsenic; for a portion of this semi-metal always remains united with the fixed matter of the Cobalt, though roasted for a long time, and in a very hot fire. The portion of Arsenic that is thus fixed vitrifies with the colouring matter, and enters into the composition of the Smalt.

The blue glass made with the fixed part of Cobalt hath several names, according to the condition in which it is. When it hath undergone the first imperfect degree of fusion only it is called Zaffre. It takes the name of Smalt when perfectly vitrified: and this again being pulverized is called Powder-blue, or, if finely levigated, Blue Enamel; because it is used in enamelling, as well as in painting earthen ware and porcelain.