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.