Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/180

COPPERMINE BIVER 144 COPYING MACHINES COPPERMINE RIVER, a river of Mackenzie district, Canada, 475 miles long, having its source in a small lake north of Lake Gras through which it flows to Coronation Gulf in the Arctic Ocean. The stream, flowing between hills and morasses, is too rapid to be navigable. Hearne discovered the river in 1771, and part of it was explored by Franklin in 1821. COPPER NICKEL, or KUPFER- NICKEL, an ore of nickel, an alloy of nickel and arsenic, containing about 60 of the former and 40 of the latter, of a copper color, found in the mines of West- phalia. COPPER PLATE, a polished plate of copper on which the lines of some draw- ing or design are engraved or etched to be printed from; also a print or impres- sion from such a plate. COPPER PYRITES, or yellow copper ore, a double sulphide of copper and iron composed in equal parts of copper, sul- phur, and iron. It occurs mostly in pri- mary and metamorphic rocks, and is the chief copper ore of England. COPPER RIVER, also called Atna, a river of Alaska, having its source in the Copper Glacier on Mt. Wrangel and flowing in the Gulf of Alaska. The upper river flows first N. then W. through a wide plain, and the lower through defiles in the Chugach Moun- tains. It is about 300 miles long; its basin is about 23,000 square miles in area, and its fall is about 3,600. The name of the river was derived from the belief that it held copper in solution. It has several tributaries, the chief be- ing the Chitna, which flows into it from the E. COPPICE, or COPSE WOOD, a wood in which the trees are cut over periodi- cally as they attain a certain size. The period for cutting varies with the soil and the tree. The oak usually requires from 15 to 25 years' growth, while the willow is cut regularly every year. The term is also used in a general sense for a wood of small growth, or consisting of underwood and brushwood. COPRA, the dried kernel of the cocoa- nut, from which the oil has not yet been expressed. COPT [said to have been derived from Kupt (Coptos), a city in Upper Egypt, now Ckoof t or Gooft, to which the Chris- tians sometimes fled during persecution by the Romans. The Rev. Dr. John Wil- son considers that the Arab Gubt or Gibt is simply Gr. Aigyptos^EgyTpf], one belonging to the Coptic Church; one of the old Egyptian race. COPTIC, pertaining to the people called Copts, or to their sect; the rem- nants of the once numerous Church of Egypt — that which had the celebrated school at Alexandria. It broke off from the body Catholic in embracing the Mo- nophysite doctrine, viz., that not two natures, but only one, existed in Christ, a view from which it has never since de- parted. About 250,000 Copts still exist in Egypt, mostly in its upper province. The Coptic language was the language not of the old Egyptians who built the pyramids and covered monuments and temples with hieroglyphics, but of their successors subsequent to the introduction of Christianity. It continued till the 10th century, when it was in large meas- ure superseded by Arabic. By the 17th it had ceased to be spoken, and existed only as a virritten dialect. While it lived three dialects were recognized, the Sa- hidic, in Upper Egypt; the Bahiric or Memphitic, in Lower Egypt; and the Bashmuric, in the Delta. COPYING MACHINES AND PROC- ESSES, the various methods of produc- ing duplicates of written or typed copy without transcription may be divided into two general classes — those in which the copies are made at the same time as the original, and those in which the copies are made after the original is completed. The most common of the first methods is the use of carbon paper between sheets of thin writing paper. This method can be used on a typewriter, and anywhere from one to ten satisfactory copies can be made with little additional effort. Of the second type, a common method is to v^nrite the original with special heavy ink. The original is pressed against a gelatinous surface which ab- sorbs some of the ink. Copies of the original may be made by pressing sheets of paper against the surface. In another system a stencil is cut by a typewriter or with a special stylus in waxed or other specially prepared paper. This stencil is placed on a roller, and inked from the inside, and will produce an almost unlimited number of copies, when paper is passed over its surface. This is the mimeograph apparatus and was said to be invented by Thomas A. Edison in 1878. It has since been sub- ject to many changes and improvements. In recent years the photostat system of direct photograph has been used for securing copies of valuable papers, and the blue-print process is still the most