CHARCOAL 



1270 CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE 



Although hardwood charcoal is the most 

 common variety, almost any plant or animal 

 material can be charred. Sugar charcoal is the 

 purest form of the element which chemists call 

 carbon. When this burns it leaves no ashes at 

 all. Commercial charcoal is carbon mixed with 

 the impurities which remain as ashes when the 

 charcoal is burned. After wood charcoal the 

 next most common commercial varieties are 

 lampblack and animal charcoal, or boncblack. 

 Boneblack is made by charring bones; lamp- 

 black, by burning oil and letting its yellow 

 flame strike against a cold metal cylinder 

 which turns slowly so as not to become heated 

 in any one part. 



Uses of Charcoal. Wood charcoal is used as 

 a fuel. It gives a smokeless fire. It was for- 

 merly the only fuel used in the smelting of 

 iron ores, but for this purpose it has been 

 almost completely replaced by coke, a form 

 of carbon made from coal in much the same 

 way as charcoal is made from wood. Large 

 quantities are still used in the old-fashioned 

 black gunpowder, which is a mixture of char- 

 coal, sulphur and saltpeter. For military pur- 

 poses this kind of gunpowder has now been 

 largely replaced by other explosives, which 

 have the double advantage of being much more 

 powerful and of yielding little or no smoke. 

 Charcoal gunpowder, however, is cheaper than 

 these smokeless powders, and is therefore com- 

 monly used in blasting rocks, in clearing land of 

 tree stumps, and in loosening soil in some 

 places, so that the roots of trees and plants can 

 grow to greater depths than would otherwise 

 be possible. 



Charcoal has the property of absorbing large 

 quantities of gases. Boxwood charcoal will 

 absorb ninety times its own volume of am- 

 monia gas, and cocoanut charcoal 170 times its 

 own volume. Charcoal is sometimes used to 

 sweeten the air of rooms. Lampblack is much 

 used in paints and in printing and drawing 

 inks. Carbon inks, such as India ink and 

 printing inks, do not fade like ordinary writing 

 inks. Animal charcoal is largely used in the 

 sugar refinery and in the distillery. Black as 

 it is, it has the power of removing the color 

 from crude sugar, syrups and crude liquors, 

 leaving them as clear and colorless as water. 



In drawing, charcoal pencils, which are 

 merely charred twigs, are much used for rapid, 

 sketchy work, when the object is not only soft- 

 ness of finish but the attainment of the max- 

 imum of effect with as few lines as possible. 

 See CARBON. . j .F.S. 



SWISS CHARD 



CHARD, SWISS CHARD or SEA KALE, a 



valuable but not extensively-cultivated vege- 

 table. It is a form of common garden beet, 

 but its roots are 

 small and woody. 

 The center 

 rib of the leaf 

 is the desirable 

 part and is pre- 

 pared much the 

 same as aspara- 

 gus. The leaf it- 

 self is also cooked 

 for greens. 

 Chard should be 

 cultivated much 

 the same as beets, 

 requiring, how- 

 ever, a little 

 richer soil. Cov- 

 ering the plants 

 with straw in the 

 fall will aid early 

 growth and help 

 blanch the stems. 

 It is a vegetable which will repay care and 

 cultivation. 



CHARGE D' AFFAIRES, shahr zha' da fair', 

 a French phrase meaning charged with affairs, 

 now used generally to indicate a diplomatic 

 agent of inferior rank sent by one country to 

 another. He takes rank after ambassadors, 

 ministers and resident ministers, and is given 

 his credentials not by the ruler of his state 

 but by the minister of foreign affairs. Nor 

 is he accredited to the ruler of the state to 

 which he goes, but to the minister of foreign 

 affairs. When two nations are on the verge 

 of a break and ambassadors and ministers have 

 been withdrawn, special charges d'affaires may 

 be appointed to carry on the necessary com- 

 munication. At any time, also, that an am- 

 bassador is absent from his post a member of 

 his staff is made charge d'affaires. See DIPLO- 

 MACY. 



CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, a stir- 

 ring, patriotic poem by Alfred Tennyson, writ- 

 ten to celebrate the memory of the English 

 brigade of light cavalry whose heroic charge 

 against the Russian center, in the Battle of 

 Balaklava, has won it undying fame. This bat- 

 tle, one of the most important engagements 

 of the Crimean War (see CRIMEA), was fought 

 on October 25, 1854, with the Turkish, French 

 and English forces contending against the 

 Russians. Through a mistake in issuing orders, 



