Cobalt blue facts for kids
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Cobalt blue is a cool blue colour. It gets its name because it was originally made using special salts from a metal called cobalt. This bright blue color is very popular and is used by many artists. You can also find it in many pieces of glassware, which are often called cobalt glass when they have this specific blue shade.
Cobalt blue, sometimes called Mohammedan blue in older, less pure forms, was used in Chinese porcelain a long time ago. However, the pure, modern version was discovered independently by a French scientist named Louis Jacques Thénard in 1802. Factories in France started making it for sale in 1807.
The first time the name cobalt blue was written down in English was in 1777. In the 1800s, a Norwegian company called Blaafarveværket, owned by Benjamin Wegner, was the biggest producer of cobalt blue in the world.
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How Cobalt Blue is Used
Cobalt blue is a popular color found in many different areas of life.
In Art
- A famous watercolor painter and astrologer named John Varley thought cobalt blue was a great choice for painting skies. In 1818, he wrote that it was "superior when used in skies and other objects."
- Many famous painters have used cobalt blue since it was discovered. These include Turner, and Impressionist artists like Renoir and Monet. Even Post-Impressionists like Van Gogh used it. It's a great paint color because it stays bright and doesn't fade, and it mixes well with other colors.
- Artist Maxfield Parrish was known for his incredibly bright sky paintings. He used a lot of cobalt blue, and sometimes people even call the color Parrish blue because of him.
- For hundreds of years, cobalt blue was the main blue color used in Chinese blue and white porcelain. This started as early as the late 700s or early 800s.
In Everyday Items
- Cars: Some car companies, like Jeep and Bugatti, offer cobalt blue as a paint color option for their vehicles.
- Construction: Because cobalt blue is very stable and doesn't react with other chemicals, it's used to add blue color to concrete in buildings and other structures.
- Glassmaking: As mentioned, many beautiful pieces of glassware get their blue color from cobalt blue. Artists use it widely in this field.
- Sports: The soccer team Sporting Kansas City in Major League Soccer has used cobalt blue as a secondary color for their home uniforms since 2008.
- Flags: Several countries, including the Netherlands and Romania, use cobalt blue as one of the colors on their national flags. The U.S. state of Nevada also has cobalt blue on its flag.
- Video Games: The company Sega uses cobalt blue as its official logo color. Their famous mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, was even colored to match this specific blue.
Safety with Cobalt Blue
It's important to know that cobalt blue can be harmful if you breathe it in or swallow it. People who work with pottery, for example, need to be careful when using cobalt blue pigments. They must take proper safety steps to avoid getting cobalt poisoning.
Other pages
Images for kids
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An example of a cobalt blue shade (not pure cobalt blue)
See also
In Spanish: Azul cobalto para niños
