Water
will absorb its own volume of it, and more than this under
pressure, and in this state becomes the common soda water of the
shops, and the carbonated water of natural springs. Combined with
lime it constitutes limestone, or common marble and chalk. Plants
imbibe it for their nutrition and growth, the carbon being
retained and the oxygen given out. --
Carbonic
oxide (Chem.),
a colorless gas, CO, of a
light odor, called more correctly carbon monoxide. It is
almost the only definitely known compound in which carbon seems
to be divalent. It is a product of the incomplete combustion of
carbon, and is an abundant constituent of water gas. It is fatal
to animal life, extinguishes combustion, and burns with a pale
blue flame, forming carbon dioxide.Car"bon*ide (kär"b&obreve;n*&ibreve;d or
-īd), n. A carbide. [R.]
Car`bon*if"er*ous
(kär`b&obreve;n*&ibreve;f"&etilde;r*ŭs),
a. [Carbon + -ferous.]
Producing or containing carbon or coal.
Carboniferous age (Geol.),
the
age immediately following the Devonian, or Age of
fishes, and characterized by the vegetation which formed the
coal beds.
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