The new text-book of chemistry; for use in high schools and academies

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 edition. Excerpt: ...Koh-i-noor is the property of the English crown. Originally it weighed 186 carats, but its weight has been reduced to 106 carats by the recutting to which it has been subjected. 163. Graphite.--Graphite is another crystalline form of carbon. It is also called plumbago, and is still more familiarly known as black-lead. It is taken from the earth in large quantities for the manufacture of lead-pencils. It has a shining steel-gray color, and it is a good conductor of electricity, being in these respects much like metals. 164. Allotropic Forms.--Charcoal, the diamond, and graphite, are but different forms of the element carbon. They differ in hardness, in color, in weight, and in many other physical properties. They are alike infusible, alike able to resist the action of substances which attack most other bodies, alike in being combustible, and alike in yielding the same substance (carbon dioxide) when burned. That they are also alike in being of vegetable origin, is believed; but of the mode in which the diamond and graphite have been made from vegetable matter, little, if any thing, is known. It is Found in Nature.--All the different varieties of coal are but different impure forms of carbon, the remains of a vegetation which grew ages before the period of man's creation. Enormous beds of limestone are found on every continent, but not a molecule of limestone occurs which does not contain an atom of carbon. And more: not a single organized body, from the lowest form of plant to the highest form of animal, exists, in which carbon is not an important element. III.--Carbon And Oxygen. 165. Oxides of Carbon.--With oxygen carbon unites in two proportions. We have Carbon monoxide. CO, Carbon dioxide C 02. 166. Carbon Monoxide.--Carbon monoxide...