Pencils

The Invention of the Pencil toc By Tanvi

=What/When=

The history of a pencil can be traced to 16th century England, somewhere around 1564. Locals of Seathwaite village, in the north-west county of Cumbria, near Borrowdale, discovered a huge graphite deposit near their sleepy hamlet. Later on, they learned that the hard and compact material could be used to mark their cattle or sheep, in order to distinguish and keep an exact count of the same. This was the first invented pencil form. The natives also figured out how to shape the graphite into small sticks, for ease of use. Since the new substance was soft and delicate when thinned for use, there was a need for a support wrapping or casing for the graphite stick.

Initially, sheep skin or string was used to hold the substance together. The idea of a wood case for the graphite stick was first developed by an Italian couple. They thought of using carpentered juniper wood, made hollow, inserted with the core, and finally compacted in an oval shape. This was the first, crude form of the pencil we know today. The idea of using wood as the casing for the writing material soon began to gain ground. In an improved version, different types of wood were used to carve two halves into which the graphite stick was inserted, which were then glued together to make a strong and simple enclosure. This method continues to be used even today. []

=Who=

The British had complete monopoly in the manufacture of the pencil in its early days, courtesy the hard deposit of graphite. This was a one-of-its-kind deposit, because graphite deposits elsewhere in the world contained lot of impurities and had to be crushed to separate those. However, there was no way to make a pencil core from powdered graphite. It was in Germany, in the year 1662, the first attempt to make pencil cores from powdered graphite, bore success. Still, the technique was restricted to these two countries. Nicholas Jacques Conte, a French man succeeded in making the pencil core in 1795, using a fired mixture of graphite and clay. The same method was used by another gentleman, Joseph Hardtmuth, from Austria, who in fact, had discovered it 5 years earlier but never popularized his effort.

=How= The recipe used by modern pencil manufacturers, calls for dried, ground graphite, a form of carbon, mixed with clay and water in varying proportions. Pencils made with more clay produce a harder pencil, and, conversely, pencils made with more graphite produce a softer pencil. In either case, the ingredients are mixed until they reach a doughy consistency, then pass through a forming press, which presses the dough into a "pencil thin," smooth, glossy rope. After workers straighten the rope, they cut it into the desired lengths, and bake them in industrial ovens. While the mixture is prepared and baked, workers prepare the casing that will house the lead. They shape the wooden casings, made from either red cedar or pine, into halves, and carve grooves in them to encase the graphite-based leads. The workers then carefully insert the finished leads into the grooves, glue the two wooden halves together, run the resulting slats through a saw that cuts them into single pencils, and finish them with a shaping machine that smoothes the pencils' surfaces. Modern pencils come in over 350 flavors, each designed for a specific use, and may be purchased in over 72 colors. "Black pencils," graphite-based pencils, come in 19 degrees of hardness and of intensity. Specialty pencil leads are crafted to write on surfaces such as cloth, cellophane, plastics, and movie film. Architects, engineers, and those doing out door construction work primarily purchase these specialty leads, as they possess non-fade, weatherproof qualities. The versatility of Conte's brainchild, the pencil, makes it the essential, indispensable tool of these trades. []

=Fun Facts = Did you know that modern pencils owe it all to an ancient Roman writing instrument called a stylus? Scribes used this thin metal rod to leave a light, but readable mark on papyrus (an early form of paper). Other early styluses were made of lead, which is what we still call pencil cores even though they actually are made of non-toxic graphite. []

=Where = Natural solid wood provides the most durable, best performing, renewable and sustainably used material for casing of pencils. Pencils that are comfortable to use form in order to support your pencil expression; however, not all pencils are created equal when it comes to wise and sustainable use of Earth's forest resources. Increasing worldwide competition has lead to greater concentration of manufacturing in countries with lower operating costs and often less stringent environmental regulatory standards. Forest management standards vary from country to country and from company to company. Enforcement of standards by governmental agencies can be lax in certain regions of the world. In China alone there are hundreds of pencil companies, slat producers, sawmills and government forest bureaus participating in the wood supply chain.

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=Dates= 1564 - Basically pencil was invented by Borrowdale Cumbria, England in 1564. The invention of pencil is directly linked with the discovery of the back carbon mine and huge graphite. When the mine was discovered then pure graphite sheets were created and cut into square ...

1662 - But the standard #2 pencil is crucial for certain tasks, like math and crossword puzzles. According to pencils.com, the first mass produced pencils were made in Germany in 1662, with the first American-made pencils emerging in the early 19th century. Aside from ...

1761 - Founded in 1761 as a pencil factory, the company is owned and managed by eighth- generation family member Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell. Faber-Castell the world's oldest manufacturer of writing instruments, makes nearly 2 billion pencils a year. Its ...

1770 - In 1770, Joseph, an English chemist, &quote;erased&quote; pencil marks with coagulated rubber. Since it &quote;rubbed off&quote; pencil marks. He gave it the name &quote;Rubber&quote;. In the late nineteenth century, a Scotsman patented a garment which ...

1795 - Pencil is a stable medium. The process used to make modern pencils was developed and patented in France in 1795. Henry Petroski's The Pencil (see Additional Resources) provides a history of the development of the pencil. Those caring for collections should ...

1822 - As the production of wooden pencils evolved, a new type of pencil was introduced in 1822. It was a mechanical pencil, the co-creation of English inventors Sampson Mordan and Gabriel Riddle. Mechanical pencils pushed their graphite rods to the pencil's point ...

Mar 30, 1858 - The first pencil with an attached eraser was patented by Hyman Lipman of Philadelphia on March 30th, 1858. Until the advent of Lipman's invention, people used separate erasers when writing, drawing and figuring. The inventor conceived the simple idea of

Apr 27, 1913 - The story starts on April 27, 1913, when Mary Phagan's lifeless 13 year-old body was found within Atlanta's National Pencil Factory. The primary suspect was Leo M. Frank -- a 29 year-old, Ivy-League educated Jewish businessman, originally from Brooklyn ...

1958 - In 1958, Leonard E. Read, founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, published a little essay titled "I, Pencil, My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read," a first-person account "written" by a Mongol 482 pencil fabricated by Eberhard Faber ...

2001 - The first Faber Castell triangle grip pencil was invented. []

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