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Webster 1913 Edition

Charcoal

Char′coalˊ

,
Noun.
[See
Char
,
Verb.
T.
, to burn or to reduce to coal, and
Coal
.]
1.
Impure carbon prepared from vegetable or animal substances; esp., coal made by charring wood in a kiln, retort, etc., from which air is excluded. It is used for fuel and in various mechanical, artistic, and chemical processes.
2.
(Fine Arts)
Finely prepared charcoal in small sticks, used as a drawing implement.
Animal charcoal
,
a fine charcoal prepared by calcining bones in a closed vessel; – used as a filtering agent in sugar refining, and as an absorbent and disinfectant.
–
Charcoal blacks
,
the black pigment, consisting of burnt ivory, bone, cock, peach stones, and other substances.
–
Charcoal drawing
(Fine Arts)
,
a drawing made with charcoal. See
Charcoal
, 2. Until within a few years this material has been used almost exclusively for preliminary outline, etc., but at present many finished drawings are made with it.
–
Charcoal point
,
a carbon pencil prepared for use in an electric light apparatus.
–
Mineral charcoal
,
a term applied to silky fibrous layers of charcoal, interlaminated in beds of ordinary bituminous coal; – known to miners as mother of coal.

Webster 1828 Edition

Charcoal

CHARCOAL

,
Noun.
Coal made by charring wood; the remains of wood burnt under turf, and from which all watery and other volatile matter has been expelled by heat. It makes a strong heat, and is used in furnaces, forges, private families, &c. It is black, brittle, light and in odorous, and not being decomposable by water or air, will endure for ages without alteration.

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