Carbon is a solid non-metallic chemical element (symbol C) occurring in the pure crystalline form as diamond and graphite.

It is also found in the combined form as a constituent of all organic materials, including coal and petroleum, and of inorganic compounds such as limestone and baking powder. Despite its wide distribution, carbon constitutes only 0.19 per cent of the earths crust.

The two elementary forms of carbon have very different properties. In diamond the atoms are so tightly bound one to another that it provides man with his hardest known substance. On the other hand, the second crystalline form of carbon, graphite, is a soft black substance with atoms hexagonally arranged in parallel sheets. Each sheet is only loosely bound to that above and to that below it, giving graphite a slippery feeling and explaining its use as a lubricant and in writing instruments. The lead of lead pencils is basically graphite.

Another important difference between diamond and graphite is that of electrical conductivity. Diamond is a non-conductor while graphite conducts in the direction parallel to the hexagonal sheets. Both have high melting and boiling points.

Industrial diamond tools may be used to drill or shape glass and ceramic articles and to grind and polish steels. Artificial diamonds have been produced by heating and compressing carbon in the form of graphite or carboncontaining compounds such as carbohydrates.

transparency of the mineral, give the diamond its brilliance. Over 90 % of the worlds diamonds come from South Africa where they are found in kimberlite rock in the craters of extinct volcanoes. It takes several tons of kimberlite obtained from the earth by mining methods to yield a fraction of a carat of perfect diamond. The popular interest in diamonds concentrates on their value as gemstones, but the stones have greater value as industrial tools.

At low temperatures all forms of carbon are relatively inert, but at elevated temperatures will combine with oxygen to form oxides. Any form of carbon when combined with a large quantity of oxygen at an elevated temperatures forms carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is also formed in the incomplete combustion of petroleum products and is found in appreciable percentages in the automobile exhaust. Elementary carbon, when heated in an atmosphere of excess oxygen,

is converted to the dioxide. Carbon dioxide is moderately non-reactive. Materials which burn at relatively low temperature, such as wood, petroleum products and paper, do not continue to burn in CO2. For this reason carbon dioxide is used as a fire-suppressing agent in fire extinguishers. Carbon is stable towards water but undergoes slight oxidation when heated with the oxidizingacids. In reaction with alkali, however, it does not suffer any attack.

1. As here means: a. in the form of b. since c. similar to 2. What does it in paragrah three refer to?

3. Summarize the paragraph by completing the following diagram.

4. Hard is the opposite of.................... 5. The word that appears twice in this sentence. What does it refer to each time?

6. What gives graphite its slippery feeling and explains its uses mentioned?

7. Complete the following table to show what determines the properties given in the table. 8. In what other ways are diamond and graphite different? In what ways are they similar?

9. What explains diamonds ability to reflect so much light back to the eye? 1O. What phrase explains the meaning of dispersive power? 11. Diamonds are found in kimberlite rock. Several tons of kimberlite are necessary to yield a fraction of a carat of perfect diamond. What does yield mean in this context? 12. What are needed in order to produce artificial diamonds?