BRONZE n.
an age of the world which followed the stone age, and was characterized by the use of implements and ornaments of copper or bronze. -- Bronze powder, a metallic powder, used with size or in combination with painting, to give the appearance of bronze, gold, or other metal, to any surface. -- Phosphor bronze and Silic…
BROOM n.
An implement for sweeping floors, etc., commonly made of the panicles or tops of broom corn, bound together or attached to a long wooden handle; -- so called because originally made of the twigs of the broom. Butcher's broom, a plant (Ruscus aculeatus) of the Smilax family, used by butchers for brooms to sweep their bl…
CADMIUM n.
A comparatively rare element related to zinc, and occurring in some zinc ores. It is a white metal, both ductile and malleable. Symbol Cd. Atomic weight 111.8. It was discovered by Stromeyer in 1817, who named it from its association with zinc or zinc ore. Cadmium yellow, a compound of cadmium and sulphur, of an intens…
CARBON n.
An elementary substance, not metallic in its nature, which is present in all organic compounds. Atomic weight 11.97. Symbol C. it is combustible, and forms the base of lampblack and charcoal, and enters largely into mineral coals. In its pure crystallized state it constitutes the diamond, the hardest of known substance…
CARBOXIDE n.
A compound of carbon and oxygen, as carbonyl, with some element or radical; as, potassium carboxide. Potassium carboxide, a grayish explosive crystalline compound, C6O6K, obtained by passing carbon monoxide over heated potassium.
CAUSE n.
nal cause, the end, design, or object, for which anything is done. -- Formal cause, the elements of a conception which make the conception or the thing conceived to be what it is; or the idea viewed as a formative principle and coöperating with the matter. -- Material cause, that of which anything is made. -- Proxim…
CELLULAR a.
-- Cellular theory, or Cell theory (Biol.), a theory, according to which the essential element of every tissue, either vegetable or animal, is a cell; the whole series of cells having been formed from the development of the germ cell and by differentiation converted into tissues and organs which, both in plants ans a…