Carbuncle

“ Inasmuch as this stone is almost as liable to change, and as capriciously as the heart itself, the omen it gives is verified with sufficient frequency to maintain its reputation for infallibility’ (The Rev. C. W. King, on ‘Precious Stones,’ &c.) .
Camillus Leonardus, in the ‘Mirror of Stones,’ describes the carbuncle as ‘brandishing its fiery rays on every side, and in the dark appearing like a fiery coal. ”

“ And upward, accordingly, went the pilgrims of the Great Carbuncle, now treading upon the tops and thickly interwoven branches of dwarf pines, which, by the growth of centuries, though mossy with age, had barely reached three feet in altitude. Next, they came to masses and fragments of naked rock, heaped confusedly together, like a cairn reared by giants, in memory of a giant chief. In this bleak realm of upper air, nothing breathed, nothing grew; there was no life but what was concentred in their two hearts; they had climbed so high, that Nature herself seemed no longer to keep them company. ”

“ Carboncẻlli, pushes or pimples of wilde fire arising in red faces.
Carbonchiáre, looke Carbónchio.
Carbonchiatúra, looke Carbónchio.
Carbónchio, a Carbuncle stone. Also a carbuncle-sore, a blane, a botch, a bile, a push, a plague-sore or fierie swelling in any part of the bodie. Also Mildew Hotplanets, or blasting of corne, or fruits, or trees. Also a burning coale.
Carbonchióso tẻrréno, earth that is crumbling and full of grit. ”

“ The carbuncles gathered from those mines look like rubies, so full of fire are they, and of enormous size. The chaplet had twelve great carbuncles in the centre, and went off by gradations into smaller garnets by the thousand. They flashed their blood-red flames in the African sun, and the head of Ucatella, grand before, became the head of the Sphinx, encircled with a coronet of fire. She bestowed a look of rapturous gratitude on Staines, and then glided away, like the stately Juno, to admire herself in the nearest glass like any other coquette, black, brown, yellow, copper, or white. ”

“ It was some time before Curdie could take his eyes from the marvel of her loveliness. Fearing at last that he was rude, he turned them away; and, behold, he was in a room that was for beauty marvellous! The lofty ceiling was all a golden vine, Whose great clusters of carbuncles, rubies, and chrysoberyls hung down like the bosses of groined arches, and in its centre hung the most glorious lamp that human eyes ever saw—the Silver Moon itself, a globe of silver, as it seemed, with a heart of light so wondrous potent that it rendered the mass translucent, and altogether radiant. ”

“ With carbuncles do shine;
Thy very streets are paved with gold,
Surpassing clear and fine.
Ah, my sweet home, Hierusalem,
Would God I were in thee!
Would God my woes were at an end,
Thy joys that I might see!
Thy gardens and thy gallant walks
Continually are green;
There grows such sweet and pleasant flowers
As nowhere else are seen.
Quite through the streets, with silver sound,
The flood of Life doth flow;
Upon whose banks on every side
The wood of Life doth grow.
There trees for evermore bear fruit,
And evermore do spring;
There evermore the angels sit,
And evermore do sing. ”

“ Carborundum, a compound of silicon and carbon, is produced at Niagara Falls, New York, by a process devised by Mr. E. G. Acheson. In an electrical furnace are placed granulated coke, sand, a little salt, and some sawdust to keep the mixture porous and allow generated gases to escape freely. The crystals of carborundum thus produced require seven horse-power hours for each pound; in hardness they are excelled by the diamond [102] only. United under severe hydraulic pressure by a vitrified bond they are eight times as efficient as emery in abrasion. ”

“ Carbon unites with iron and some of the metals to form carbides; [Pg 416] combined carbon of this kind is detected by the odour of the carburetted hydrogen evolved when the metal is treated with hydrochloric acid; for example, on dissolving steel in acid.
The natural carbon compounds, although, speaking generally, insoluble in hydrochloric or nitric acids, are more or less attacked by aqua regia. The assayer seldom requires these compounds to be in solution. The presence of "organic matter" [117] interferes with most of the reactions which are used for the determination of the metals. ”

“ It exists in various natural bodies in which carbon and oxygen are combined; it is evolved by the decomposition of numerous bodies called carbonates, in which carbon is united with a particular base, such as the carbonate of lime, the carbonate of iron, the carbonate of copper, &c. It is also evolved by the processes of fermentation, by the breathing of animals, the combustion of fuel, and the functions of plants. Carbonic acid also exists in various waters. ”

“ Compounds containing carbon enter into all the products of a living cell. For this reason the chemistry of carbon compounds came to be known as organic chemistry. This should not be taken as a definition, however, without limitations. Many of the compounds containing carbon are not known to enter into living tissue in any way, and their connection with it is very remote and not essential. On the other hand, it should be remembered that many organic compounds, and those even of most importance, contain some other element,—nitrogen, for example,—as the significant one. ”

“ Carbonic acid, so fatal to animal life, is essential to the life of plants; indeed the existence of the whole vegetable kingdom depends on the presence of this gas in the atmosphere. Carbonic acid is a compound of oxygen and carbon or charcoal, which substance is the principal constituent of all plants. Every green leaf may be compared to a little chemical laboratory, in which the carbonic acid of the air is decomposed, the carbon being retained by the plant, while the pure oxygen is cast forth into the atmosphere. ”

“ These blocks having been allowed to dry and harden, are subsequently carbonized by being subjected to a process of incineration by heat; and, in this manner, all the combustible ingredients are burnt out of the block, leaving nothing behind but the animal charcoal in the form of a block of charcoal, permeated throughout by innumerable pores, admirably adapted for the mechanical infiltration of fluids, while subjecting them, in a minutely subdivided state, to the chemical absorptive and purifying action of the carbon itself. ”

“ A man in twenty-four hours converts as much as seven ounces of carbon into carbonic acid; a milch cow will convert seventy ounces, and a horse seventy-nine ounces, solely by the act of respiration. That is, the horse in twenty-four hours burns seventy-nine ounces of charcoal, or carbon, in his organs of respiration, to supply his natural warmth in that time. All the warm-blooded animals get their warmth in this way, by the conversion of carbon, not in a free state, but in a state of combination. ”

“ The carbon atom, for example, is prone to combine with other atoms in definite varied ways, and the high degree of complexity which the protein molecule possesses may depend in greater part upon the combining power of its carbon elements. The nitrogen atom makes the protein an extremely volatile compound, so that the latter burns readily in the tissue cells; and the hydrogen and oxygen bring their specific characteristics to the total molecule. ”

“ The possible carbo-hydrates are almost infinite in number. Multitudes of them have been artificially made, and numerous kinds are made naturally by plants. Though perhaps the first step in the reduction of the carbon from its dioxide may be always the same, yet it is held probable that in different types of plants different types of carbo-hydrates forthwith arise, and give differential characters to the compounds subsequently formed by such types: sundry of the changes being katabolic rather than anabolic. ”

“ The story of the carbon (charcoal) which went into the American canister is one of the most interesting phases of the whole undertaking. Investigations carried on by the research staff of the National Carbon Co., aided by a clue from the University of Chicago, led to the selection of coconut shell as a raw material. Any carbon absorbs a definite number of times its weight of gas. Therefore the densest carbons will be most efficient, volume for volume, as gas absorbers in a given space. ”

“ It is supposed to approach as nearly to pure carbon as the best prepared charcoal does, as it contains only five parts of iron, unadulterated by any other foreign ingredients. There is another carburet of iron, in which the iron, though united only to an extremely small proportion of carbon, acquires very remarkable properties ”

“ It will be remembered that the active agent in the reduction of the ore is the carbonic oxide gas formed by the incomplete combustion of the carbon of the fuel; or what comes to the same thing, the absorption by carbonic acid first produced of another proportion of carbon. The carbon oxide robs the iron oxide of its oxygen to become itself changed into carbonic acid. ”

“ The admixture of charcoal with the soil, is said to be a means of adding to its nutritive qualities. Charcoal, which is nearly pure carbon, may be supposed continually to give off a portion of this gaseous substance during its decomposition, and this uniting with a portion of the oxygen contained in the air, would furnish a supply of carbonic acid gas, to the atmosphere immediately about the plants. ”

“ In the tapping process a fixed crucible is used, lined with carbon, the electrode is nearly as big as the crucible and a much higher current density is used. The carbide is heated to complete liquefaction and tapped at short intervals. There is no unreduced material, and the process is considerably simplified, while less expensive plant is required. The run carbide, however, is never so rich as the ingot carbide, since an excess of lime is nearly always used in the mixture to act as a flux, and this remaining in the carbide lowers its gas-yielding power. ”

“ At temperatures between about 900° and 1100° the carbon exists in the form of carbide of iron dissolved in the iron, at a temperature of 890° the iron which can exist in different forms as an allotropic substance passes from the γ form to the β form, and in this form cannot dissolve more than .9 per cent, of carbon as carbide. Thus at this temperature a large proportion of the carbon passes out of the solution. ”

“ A mass of charcoal remains, almost as large as the body of the plant. Charcoal is almost pure carbon, the ash present being so small in proportion to the large amount of carbon that we look on the ash as an impurity. Nearly half of the dry substance of a tree is carbon. Carbon goes off as a gas when the plant is burned in air. It does not go off alone, but in combination with oxygen in the form of carbon dioxide gas, CO2. ”

“ The greatest part, however, of vegetables consists of carbon, or, to make ourselves more intelligible, pure charcoal; the carbon, notwithstanding its solidity in the shape of charcoal, most readily combines with oxygen, and hence it forms, as carbonic acid, a small portion of atmospheric air, from which source the carbon of plants is in part at least derived. Another source from which plants derive their carbon is the earth, and decaying vegetable matters; the dung of animals supplies also some of the constituents of vegetables. ”

“ Quite so, uncle. Burn carbon or charcoal either in the air or in oxygen, and it is sure always to make carbonic acid, and nothing [pg 297] else, if it is dry. No dew or mist gathers in a cold glass jar if you burn dry charcoal in it. The charcoal goes entirely into carbonic acid gas, and leaves nothing behind but ashes, which are only earthy stuff that was in the charcoal, but not part of the charcoal itself. And now, shall I tell you something about carbon? ”

“ The chlorophyll-grain is not simply immersed in protoplasm but is permeated throughout its substance by a protoplasmic network or sponge-work apparently continuous with the protoplasm around; or, according to Sachs, consists of protoplasm holding chlorophyll-particles in suspension: the mechanical arrangement facilitating the chemical function. The resulting abstraction of carbon from carbon-dioxide, by the aid of certain ethereal undulations, appears to be the first step in the building up of organic compounds—the first step in the primary anabolic process. ”

“ For mounting minute objects, carbolic acid solution will be found a useful medium—the purest crystals of carbolic acid dissolved in just sufficient water to render them fluid. No more should be dissolved than may be wanted for the time being, as if left standing exposed to the light it changes colour. Small crustacean foraminifera, the palates of moluscs, after boiling a short time in liquid potash and well washing to remove all traces of alkali, may be preserved in carbolic acid solution. Should the specimens appear cloudy gently warm the slide over a spirit lamp. ”

“ When the finest charcoal powder, made by carbonising any organic substance, is examined under a powerful microscope the structure of the particles is at once recognised, so that it is almost always possible to decide whether the charcoal is of plant or animal origin. A very careful examination may show what particular part of the plant has been carbonised. If a manufacturer succeeded in producing by direct carbonisation a black with the covering power of a soot black, that black would soon be the only one found in commerce. ”

“ It is an extremely familiar material on the earth; for instance, coal is chiefly composed of carbon. Charcoal when burned leaves only a few ashes. All the substance that has vanished during combustion is carbon; in fact, it is not too much to say that carbon is found abundantly not only in wood, but in almost every form of vegetable matter. The food we eat contains abundant carbon, and it is an important constituent in the building up of our own bodies. Generally speaking, carbon is not found in a pure state—it is associated with other substances. ”