06 Carbon

Carbon is of prehistoric knowledge as diamond as well as graphite. That diamonds were known at least as early as 1200 B.C. seems probable according to ancient Hindu writings. The earliest authentic reference to the diamond is ascribed to one Manilius near the 1st century AD. The name diamond derives from a corruption of the Greek word "adamas" (the invincible) (Or: from the Latin adámas, adámantis, which is itself a Greek word, adamas, adamantos, meaning in these languages "hard steel").

The first recognition of graphite is obscured in antiquity. It was confused with other minerals of similar appearance, chiefly molydenite (MoS₂). One name for graphite is "plumbago", like lead; and until modern times it was thought to contain lead.

Also carbon in the forms of charcoal and soot must have been known to the earliest humans. In Roman times charcoal was made by the same chemistry as it is today, by heating wood in a pyramid covered with clay to exclude air. The woodcut shows two stages in the manufacture of wood charcoal.

In 1704 Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) proposed that diamonds must be combustible. In 1772 Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) demonstrated that charcoal, graphite, and diamond contain the same substance. Lavoisier called the element carbone to distinguish it from "charbon" (French) for charcoal.
Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786), in 1779, demonstrated that graphite oxidized to carbon dioxide providing its chemical constitution. The name graphite, which comes from the Greek verb γραφειν [graphein], to write, originated with Werner in 1789.

George Johnstone Stoney suggested that Argon was a compound of Hydrogenium with "Infrakohlenstoff" (Infra-Carbon), a hypothecal element in the periodic system above C (note) .

ATYAN
CARBON, combined, forming Life's chief tenement,
An abundant, allotropic metalloid;
Is found in nature pure and crystallized
In two distinct and very diff'rent forms;
Transparent—as Diamond,Opaque—as Graphite
(Plumbago), and, in an Amorphous state
(Non-crystallized) briefly—as Min'ral Charcoal.
Carbon is Life's choice structural element
In the vegetable and animal worlds;
And in Peat, Coal-Beds, Anthracite, and Shale.
Crystallized Carbon—as Diamond, a gem
So greatly prized, in perfect purity
Is colourless, and of high refractive power;
Diamonds are found of various hues
Snow-white (known as the "first water"), rose-red,
Prussian blue, yellow, brown, and also black.
The Diamond is the hardest substance known, its crystals
Are octohedral, and are found detached,
Embedded in gravel or drift material,
Through Brazil, Borneo, India, and Cape.
(...)
Graphite, the trail substance in "lead pencils,"
Frequently call'd Plumbago or Black Lead,
is pure Carbon often mingled with Iron;
Sometimes, but rarely, it occurs in crystals.