CHAPTER X. CARBON.

Examine graphite, anthracite coal, bituminous coal, cannel coal,
wood, gas carbon, coke.

40. Preparation of C.

Experiment 26.--Hold a porcelain dish or a plate in the flame of
a candle, or of a Bunsen burner with the openings at the bottom
closed. After a minute examine the deposit. It is carbon, i.e.
lamp- black or soot, which is a constituent of gas, or of the
candle. Open the valve at the base of the Bunsen burner, and hold
the deposit in the flame. Does the C gradually disappear? If so,
it has been burned to CO2. C + 2 O = CO2. Is C a combustible
element?

Experiment 27.--Ignite a splinter, and observe the combustion and
the smoke, if any. Try to collect some C in the same way as
before.

With plenty of O and high enough temperature, all the C is burned
to CO2, whether in gas, candle, or wood. CO2 is an invisible gas.
The porcelain, when held in the flame, cools the C below the
point at which it burns, called the kindling-point, and hence it
is deposited. The greater part of smoke is unburned carbon.

Experiment 28.--Hold an inverted dry t.t. or receiver over the
flame of a burning candle, and look for any moisture (H2O). What
two elements are shown by these experiments to exist in the
candle? The same two are found in wood and in gas. Experiment
29.--Put into a small Hessian crucible (Fig. 18) some pieces of
wood 2 or 3 cm long, cover with sand, and heat the crucible
strongly. When smoking stops, cool the crucible, remove the
contents, and examine the charcoal. The gases have been driven
off from the wood, and the greater part of what is left is C.

Experiment 30.--Put 1 g. of sugar into a porcelain crucible, and
heat till the sugar is black. C is left. See Experiment 5. Remove
the C with a strong solution of sodium hydrate (page 208).

41. Allotropic Forms.--Carbon is peculiar in that it occurs in at
least three allotropic, i.e. different, forms, all having
different properties. These are diamond, graphite, and amorphous
--not crystalline--carbon. The latter includes charcoal, lamp-
black, bone-black, gas carbon, coke, and mineral coal. All these
forms of C have one property in common; they burn in O at a high
temperature, forming CO2. This proves that each is the element C,
though it is often mixed with some impurities.

Allotropy, or allotropism, is the quality which an element often
has of appearing under various forms, with different properties.
The forms of C are a good illustration.

42. Diamond is the purest C; but even this in burning leaves a
little ash, showing that it is not quite pure. It is a rare
mineral, found in India, South Africa, and Brazil, and is the
hardest and most highly refractive to light of all minerals.
Boron is harder. [Footnote: B, not occurring free, is not a
mineral.] When heated in the electric arc, at very high
temperatures, diamond swells and turns black. 43. Graphite, or
Plumbago, is One of the Softest Minerals.--It is black and
infusible, and oxidizes only at very high temperatures, higher
than the diamond. It contains from 95 to 98 per cent C. Graphite
is found in the oldest rock formations, in the United States and
Siberia. It is artificially formed in the iron furnace. Graphite
is employed for crucibles where great heat is required, for a
lubricant, for making metal castings, and, mixed with clay, for
lead-pencils. It is often called black-lead.

44. Amorphous Carbon comprises the following varieties.

Charcoal is made by heating wood, for a long time, out of contact
with the air. The volatile gases are thus driven off from the
wood; what is left is C, and a small quantity of mineral matter
which remains as ash when the coal is burned.

45. Lamp-black is prepared as in Experiment 26, or by igniting
turpentine (C1OH16), naphtha, and various oils, and collecting
the C of the smoke. It is used for making printers' ink, India
ink, etc. A very pure variety is obtained from natural gas.

Bone-black, or animal charcoal, is obtained by distilling bones,
i.e. by heating them in retorts into which no air is admitted.
The C is the charred residue.

Gas Carbon is formed in the retorts of the gas-house. See page
182. It is used to some extent in electrical work.

46. Coke is the residue left after distilling soft coal. It is
tolerably pure carbon, with some ash and a little volatile
matter. It burns without flame. 47. Mineral Coal is fossilized
wood or other vegetable matter. Millions of years ago trees and
other vegetation covered the earth as they do to-day. In certain
places they slowly sank, together with the land, into the
interior of the earth, were covered with sand, rock, and water,
and heated from the earth's interior. A slow distillation took
place, which drove off some of the gases, and converted vegetable
matter into coal. All the coal dug from the earth represents
vegetable life of a former period. Millions of years were
required for the transformation; but the same change is in
progress now, where peat beds are forming from turf.

Coal is found in all countries, the largest beds being in the
United States. From the nature of its formation, coal varies much
in purity.

Anthracite, or hard coal, is purest in carbon, some varieties
having from 90 to 95 per cent. This represents most complete
distillation in the earth; i.e. the gases have mostly been driven
off. It is much used in New England.

48. Bituminous, or soft coal, crocks the hands, and burns rapidly
with much flame and smoke. The greater part of the coal in the
earth is bituminous. It represents incomplete distillation.
Hence, by artificially distilling it, illuminating gas is made.
See page 180. It is far less pure C than anthracite.

49. Cannel Coal is a variety of bituminous coal which can be
ignited like a candle. This is because so many of the gases are
still left, and it shows cannel to be less pure C than bituminous
coal.

50. Lignite, Peat, Turf, etc., are still less pure varieties of
C. Construct a table of the naturally occurring forms of this
element, in the order of their purity. Carbon forms the basis of
all vegetable and animal life; it is found in many rocks, mineral
oils, asphaltum, natural gas, and in the air as CO2.

51. C a Reducing Agent.

Experiment 31.--Put into a small ignition-tube a mixture of 4 or
5 g. of powdered copper oxide (CuO), with half its bulk of
powdered charcoal. Heat strongly for ten or fifteen minutes.
Examine the contents for metallic copper. With which element of
CuO has C united? The reaction may be written: Cu0 + C = CO + Cu.
Complete and explain.

A Reducing, or Deoxidizing, Agent is a substance which takes away
oxygen from a compound. C is the most common and important
reducing agent, being used for this purpose in smelting iron and
other ores, making water-gas, etc.

An Oxidizing Agent is a substance that gives up its O to a
reducing agent. What oxidizing agent in the above experiment?

52. C a Decolorizer.

Experiment 32.--Put 3 or 4 g. of bone-black into a receiver, and
add 10 or 15 cc.of cochineal solution. Shake this thoroughly,
covering the bottle with the hand. Then pour the whole on a
filter paper, and examine the filtrate. If all the color is not
removed, filter again. What property of C is shown by this
experiment? Any other coloring solution may be tried.

The decolorizing power of charcoal is an important
characteristic. Animal charcoal is used in large quantities for
decolorizing sugar. The coloring matter is taken out mechanically
by the C, there being no chemical action. 53. C a Disinfectant.

Experiment 33.--Repeat the previous experiment, adding a solution
of H2S3 i.e. hydrogen sulphide, in water, instead of cochineal
solution. See page 120. Note whether the bad odor is removed. If
not, repeat.

Charcoal has the property of absorbing large quantities of many
gases. Ill-smelling and noxious gases are condensed in the pores
of the C; O is taken in at the same time from the air, and these
gases are there oxidized and rendered odorless and harmless. For
this reason charcoal is much used in hospitals and sick-rooms, as
a disinfectant. This property of condensing O, as well as other
gases, is shown in the experiment below.

54. C an Absorber of Gases and a Retainer of Heat.

Experiment 34.--Put a piece of phosphorus of the size of a pea,
and well dried, on a thick paper. Cover it well with bone-black,
and look for combustion after a while. O has been condensed from
the air, absorbed by the C, and thus communicated to the P. Burn
all the P at last.