Animal charcoal, like vegetable charcoal, consists of carbon in a state approaching purity. It is made from the bones of animals, heated in iron cylinders. It is commonly called ivory black.
277. What is the purest form of carbon known?
The purest form of carbon is the diamond, which may be said to be absolutely pure.
Hence we derive another of the beautiful lessons of science—a lesson which teaches us to despise nothing that God has given. The soot which blackens the face of a chimney-sweep, and the diamond that glistens in the crown of the monarch, consist of the same element in merely a different atomic condition. What a lesson of humility this teaches to Pride! The haughty beauty as she walks the ball-room, inwardly proud of the radiance of her gems as they rise and fall upon her breast, little thinks or knows that every breath that is expired around her wafts away the like element of which her treasures are composed. That even in our own flesh and bones the same abounding substance lies hid; and that the buried tree of the primitive world, and the little flower of to-day, are both the instruments of giving this singular element to man!
Coke is coal, divested of its hydrogen and other volatile parts, by a similar process to that by which charcoal is produced. It forms the residue after hydrogen gas has been made from coals. It consists almost entirely of carbon.
"Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men."—Psalm cvii.