CARBON 



1178 



CARBON BISULPHIDE 



monly so employed. Taken into the stomach, 

 except in very weak solutions, it acts as a pow- 

 erful poison and causes death if relief is not 

 prompt (see ANTIDOTE, for treatment). In 

 many localities its sale is prohibited except 

 upon a physician's prescription. J.F.S. 



CAR 'BON. We all know what coal is, and 

 sometimes we see charcoal. We are familiar 

 with the so-called "lead" in our pencils, which 

 is not lead at all, but graphite, and occasionally 

 we see a diamond. All of these substances are 

 different forms of the element carbon, but the 

 diamond is crystallized in one way, graphite 

 in another, and charcoal is not crystallized at 

 all; in other words, its atoms are not arranged 

 in any definite order. Coal contains much 

 carbon in combination with other elements. 

 Some hard coals, or anthracites, contain over 

 ninety per cent of carbon. The coke left in the 

 retorts when coal is heated to make gas is, 

 like wood charcoal, an impure amorphous (un- 

 crystallized) carbon. The purest amorphous 

 carbon is made by heating sugar in a loosely- 

 covered crucible until gas ceases to come off. 



Carbon is one of the chemical elements, and 

 it exists in the three forms mentioned. It 

 forms more compounds than any of the other 

 elements. Its compounds are found in every 

 plant and animal, and the branch of chemistry 

 that treats of these compounds is called organic 

 chemistry. With oxygen it forms carbonic 

 oxide, or carbon monoxide, and carbonic-acid 

 gas (which see). With hydrogen, it forms an 

 extensive class of compounds known as hydro- 

 carbons, which differ widely in their chemical 

 and physical characteristics. The various car- 

 bonates occur very abundantly in the earth's 

 crust. J.F.S. 



Related Subjects. A broader view of this 



topic may be secured by reading the following 

 articles in these volumes : 



Boneblack Diamond 



Carbides Gas 



Carbonates Graphite 



Charcoal Hydrocarbons 



Coke Lampblack 



CARBONATES, kar'bonates, salts of car- 

 bonic acid, such as sodium carbonate and cal- 

 cium carbonate. Calcium carbonate, or car- 

 bonate of lime, is the most abundant of the 

 natural carbonates. It exists as calcite, lime- 

 stone and marble, chalk and marl, and is the 

 chief constituent of egg-shells, oyster-shells, 

 pearls and coral, and an important constituent 

 of bones. Whiting is fine calcium carbonate, and 

 putty is the same material mixed with linseed 

 oil. The common carbonate of soda, or sal 



soda, is a well-known washing powder, and 

 bicarbonate of soda is used in cooking and for 

 numerous other purposes. Carbonate of cop- 

 per, known to the mineralogist as cerussite, is 

 a valuable ore from which copper is obtained, 

 and one of the iron ores, siderite, is a carbonate 

 of iron. Some carbonates are used in dyeing 

 and others in medicine. When a carbonate is 

 treated with an acid, carbonic-acid gas (which 

 see) is set free. J.F.S. 



CARBONDALE, PA., a coal-mining city of 

 Lackawanna County, in the northeastern part 

 of the state. It is sixteen miles northeast of 

 Scranton, thirty-five miles northeast of Wilkes- 

 Barre and 199 miles northwest of New York 

 City. It is served by the Delaware & Hudson, 

 the Erie, and the New York, Ontario & West- 

 ern railroads. The area of the city is about 

 three square miles. The population in 1910 

 was 17,040; it had increased to 18,532 in 1914. 



Carbondale is situated in the Lackawanna 

 Valley. The Catskill Mountains in New York 

 may be clearly seen to the northeast. The hills 

 surrounding the city form one of the richest 

 anthracite coal sections of the state, and the 

 town takes its name from this great natural 

 resource. Coal mining and shipping are the 

 principal industries; industrial plants of impor- 

 tance are silk and knitting mills, foundries 

 and machine shops, ice refrigerating plants, car 

 shops and glass factories. 



In the center of the city is Memorial Park. 

 The prominent public buildings are the mu- 

 nicipal building, the post office, state hospital 

 for the criminal insane (located at Fairview, 

 five miles distant), four banks, an emergency 

 hospital, a private hospital and a city library. 



The coal mines were opened in 1824, and the 

 settlement at Carbondale, begun that year, 

 was incorporated in 1851. The city adopted 

 the commission form of government in the 

 year 1913. R.M.S. 



CARBON BISULPHIDE, disul'fide, or CAR- 

 BON BISULPHIDE, a compound of carbon and 

 sulphur, which is known as a heavy, colorless 

 liquid. When pure it has rather a pleasant 

 odor, but ordinarily, owing to the presence of 

 impurities, it has a very unpleasant smell. It 

 readily dissolves india rubber, gutta-percha, 

 sulphur, phosphorus and resins. Carbon disul- 

 phide is sometimes used to kill moths and 

 other insects, as well as burrowing animals, 

 such as moles and woodchucks, and small ani- 

 mals in buildings, as rats and mice in mills. 

 Another important use is in the manufacture 

 of artificial silk from wood pulp. Carbon di- 







