CHARCOAL.
Zugal, Fahm-chobi, ARAB. Koela, Kolsa, . . HIND. Mi-thwa, . . . BUM. Carbone de legna, . IT. Pan-tan, CHIN. Arang-bara, . . Maui. Peh-tsau-shwang, „ Lippe anghoru, . SINGH. Charbon de bois, . . FE. Carbon de lens, . . Sr. Kholenstoff, . . . GER. Adapu earri, Karri, . TAM. Reine kohle, . . . „ , Bog-u, Poibogulo, • TEL.
In the south and south-east of Asia, coal being found only in distant localities, and the cost of carriage great, charcoals are in great request. In the Peninsula of India, the common native mode of preparing them is to set on fire a heap of small wood, and, after allowing it to burn for some time, to quench it either by water or by heaping earth upon it ; but charcoal so prepared is of little value in reducing iron ore, and the process is wasteful. The destruction of firewood in the neighbourhood of ironworks is grossly extrava gant. Native iron-smelters only employ fuel from one to three inches in diameter ; and to procure this they take saplings, or the tops and branches of the largest hardwood trees, allowing the trunks to decay. They do this because large trees are not adapted for fuel for native smelting, as the cost of splitting them adds greatly to the expense ; and unless the logs be split, the inner wood is not car bonized. Charcoal, to be good, should be of wood burned with as little exposure to the action of the air as possible, and be black, brittle, easily pul verized, perfectly insipid, solid, and inodorous. Charcoal is mostly used as a fuel, but also in the manufacture of gunpowder. For the forge, the best is that prepared from bamboos and from stems of palmyra leaves (Tati komaloo, TEL.). The tama rind yields a good charcoal for the same pur pose, as do most hard woods, but the charcoal of the Acacia sundra is said to be amongst the best for this purpose. Other woods used in the S. of India arc the vella-marda, karra-marda, erool, Indian gooseberry, the poohum, the nux vomica, and the cassan. In Northern India, Acacia catechu, A. modesta,Cassiafistula, Butea frondosa,Capparis, sp., Pinus longifolia, Prosopis spicigera, Salvadora. For gunpowder, the roots of the milk hedge, Euphorbianeriifolia, and of the Calotropis gigantea are preferred. At the Madras Government Powder Mills, that of the gram bush, Dolichos uniflorus, and in those of Bengal and Bombay, the Cajanus Indicus, or pigeon-pea stalks, are used. Charcoal used for gunpowder manufacture is generally made from small shrubs or herbs, as Vitex, Caja nus, Calotropis, and Parkinsonia aculeata, the Parkinsonia being said to yield a very good char coal for gunpowder, though the gunpowder con sidered the best is manufactured from the Sesbania tEgyptiaca. The gunpowder charcoal used at the Damuda coal - works is made from an acacia.
The Sikhs employed Justicia adhatoda, which is also in use all over India. At Aden the Arabs prefer the Calotropis, probably because it is most easily procured. The grain of all these plants is open, whereas in England closer-grained and more woody trees, especially willows, are preferred. In India, gunpowder charcoal is also made from the Adhatoda vasica, Alnus, Buten frondosa, Cole brookia oppositifolia, Cornus macrophylla, Daphne oleoides, and Hamiltonia suaveolens. In China the gunpowder charcoal is made from the Cun ninghamia Sinensis. Charcoal is burned as a dis infectant on the last days of the year, in all Chinese houses. Charcoal powder, Pan-mob, Cling., is used internally in China, mixed with water, in metallic poisoning, in acute diseases of the throat, and in dysentery.
In Ceylon the cashew nut tree is considered the best sort of wood for charcoal for ironsmiths, and is felled for this purpose only. At Darjiling that of the chestnut wood is used by blacksmiths. In Nepal the best is made of the wood of the babang, or holly-leafed oak. In Kullu and Kangra the wood chiefly used for charcoal is Chil, Pinus excelsa ; but the alder (kaunch) and Alnus Nepal ensis, which fringes the tributary streams, is also employed for this purpose, as no hard woods are available. The lighter woods generally yield lighter and more combustible charcoals. Never theless the dogwood of Britain, the wild cornel tree, which makes the strongest of the British gunpowders, and is exclusively used for the powder of the breechloading firearms, is a dense, com paratively heavy, slow-growing wood. In Britain, the alder, the willow, and dogwood are the only woods used for charcoal in the Government estab lishments,—the two former for cannon powder, the last for small arms. Private makers use the same woods, and they use the last for the forest sporting powder. The three woods grow 11 in England, but they are chiefly obtained from Belgium, Hol land, and Sussex, the dogwood selling at £12 to £15 the ton. Coarser woods are used for common blasting powder. There are many circumstances connected with this ingredient of gunpowder not yet understood, but it seems to be the variations in charcoal which cause the differences in the powder. Charcoal is little liable to decay. Tills best charcoal for a dentifrice it that of the betel nut. Charcoal possesses remarkable antiseptic properties, as it resists the putrefaction of animal matter, and destroys the smell and colour of many substances. — Mr. Faulkner; Mr. Rohde; Dr. Cleghorn ; M'Culloch's Die. p. 266 ; Mr. 1Vall's Report in G. O. 17th July, No. 1040 of 1859 ; Hooker's Him. Jour. i, p. 9; Edge, Mal. and Can.; Dr. J. L. Stewart ; Quarterly Review, July 1868.