Poor old copper – it’s very name is a insult in some circles. Although admittedly not in the most refined and sophisticated circles! But no matter what circle, square, triangle or otherwise you move in, if your period style home favours copper furnishings and infrastructure, we’ve put together a handy reference guide for the metal – its history, personality type, care and uses.

Copper is uncommon among building metals, in that it is one of the few ‘pure’ metals used in building. Alloys are usually favoured over ‘pure’ metals (those made up of only one element), because why would you go with something natural when you can muck around a little bit, have a few fun explosions, and create something with properties more exactly suited to your purpose?! Seriously though, it is generally easier to make something to your exact specifications when you can add a little of this and a little of that. This is what gives it such a long history – before humans had the technology or tools to mix metals together, they could easily find copper lying about in the countryside, bang it a little bit and have something they could call a homeware or a tool. It’s total history of use by humans is known to be at least 10,000 years, and smelted copper has been found that has been dated at around 5,000 years old. The oldest known copper artifact was sadly an implement of hurt, death and destruction – a copper mace head.

Architecture helped create a new name for copper as a domesticated metal, though! In the Egyptian Pyramids there was found a copper plumbing system that is at least 5,000 years old. If you live I an older house, it can sometimes seem that your plumbing system may have come straight from the pyramids, with no reconditioning! It was also polished and used for mirrors, before our modern glass-covered silver mirrors became commonplace.

One of the easiest ways to tell if you have copper hardware in your home is whether your unlacquered metal objects turn green regularly! This is one of the best known properties of copper – it will not only turn green itself, but will leave a greenish sickly coloured residue on your skin if you make or wear copper jewellery. The green is actually copper carbonate, which forms from the carbon dioxide in the air reacting with the copper. It is called verdigris by those in copper inside circles (!). The Statue of Liberty is perhaps the most famous example of verdigris patination. Don’t constantly wash off that green though – if you don’t like how it looks (and I wouldn’t blame you for that! Copper is such a beautiful rich colour, naturally), then wash it off once, and then lacquer your metal to prevent further exposure to the air. The verdigris forms as a protective layer for the metal, so if you don’t want it there, you’ll need to provide some artificial protection for the poor thing. The verdigris patination is often seen on old buildings’ rooves – and these are highly resistant to corrosion.

Copper is one of the metals that disinfects itself – we have talked about the de-germifying (!) effects of brass elsewhere in the blog – it is one of the metal’s most endearing characteristics, the fact that it is self-cleaning! Copper disinfects itself via the oligodynamic effect (Science alert! Science alert!), which also happens with mercury, silver, iron, lead, bismuth, gold and aluminium as the most notable characters. The metals are supposed to do this by binding to reactive groups of enzymes within cells – the enzymes are therefore inactivated. And we all know what happens when you don’t have your enzymes!

You’ll notice that many metals that exhibit the oligodynamic effect are also the poisonous ones … we’ve been hearing for several decades now about the dangers of ingesting mercury and lead, among others. So it is unsurprising that copper is also toxic in larger quantities – it poisons the body in a similar way to arsenic. What is surprising (or at least interesting!!) is that while it is also a poison, it is absolutely vital for our body’s processes! Unlike snake venom, window cleaner, or petrol :-)

Copper is as important in modern applications as it has been historically – unlike other metals which rose and then feel in usage, like nickel. Copper is used extensively in electronics and plumbing, and the currency of the European Union, The United Kingdom and United States, Australia and New Zealand also use copper. It is also used in medicine, ceramic glazes, as a glass colour, and for making musical instruments – as brass is one of its most important alloys.

Photo credits: Copper (1043) by Craig Elliott

          

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