Charcoal

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.