The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-04 00:00:00

My dear Sir—My opinion respecting your Patent Flambago
amounts to this ; that by much ingenuity you have overcome nume-
rous difficulties, in the way of compressing comminuted plumbago
into a solid mass of an extraorilnary, homogeneous, and uniform
character ; that the fracture and texture of that which you have so
consolidated so closely resembles the finest native specimens as to
render it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish be-
tween your artificial product and that of the finest quality obtained
from the mines ; that the pencils from your manufacture are, at far
as my judgment enables Toe to deters:dine, equal to those made of
the beg Borrodale plumbago ; and, lastly, that you have succeeded
in giving to them those different degrees of hardness which are re-
quired by the artist, without rendering them brittle on the one hand,
or puiverulent on the other.—Yours always, very sincerely,
Wm. Brockedon, Esq. WM. TIIOS. BRLIIDE.
From Francis Ronalds, Esq., F.R.S., &c., of the Kew Observatory.
"Kew Observatory, Monday.
My dear Sir,—l beg your pardon for having so long delayed to
express my opinion of your patent lead in pencils ; but I do not
regret very much the omission, because it has given me time to test
the specimens fairly whilst makirig my drawings for the report con-
tenting this Observatory to the British Association.

I may conscient'ousli say that I never used a pencil—l speak of
the Hit at this moment—with more saisfaction. It was smooth,
equally hard throughout, and possessed a quality which the harder
sort of pencils hitherto used are deficient in, viz., blackness.

Before I h id tried them all, Baron de Walterhausen and Professor
Kriel, of Prague, came here, and were so enamoured of them that
they not only took them per force, but almost abused me for not
being ale to give them a nearer address than Cheapside or the City-
road, for procuring a stock to take home. I will thank you to put
me in the way of giving better directions in future.
Yours very sincerely, FRANCIS RONALDS.

William Brockedon, Esq.
From Mtkjor-General Colby. R.E., F.R.S., &c., &c., &c., of the
Ordnance Survey.
_ _

Ordnance Map-office, Southampton, Jan 24, 1846,

. . . ,
My dear Sir,—lu reply to your letter of yesterday's date, I have
much pleasure in being able to state that the specimens of pencils
which accompany It are of a very good quality and quite free from

grit. —Yours very truly, THOS. COLBY,
Prom Charles G. Lewis, Esq., Engraver.

My dear Sir,—l have only just now commenced using the pencils
you were so kind to send to we ; they are the best I Lave ever used,
so very free ftom grit ; they are just the thing for the use I am now
making of them, viz., reducing. The HII is quite delightful to draw
with, and a great relief after the many gritty pencils I have been in
the habit of using, and which break incessantly. I regret that I had
non earlier an opportunity of giving them a fair trial.
Believe me, dear Sir, yours very faithfully,
Wm. Brockedon, Esq. CHAS. G. LEWIS.
From Mr. Roberson, Artists' Colourman, Long Acre.

51, Long Acre, Jan. 10, 1846.
Dear Sir,—All who have had to contend with the faultiness of
genuine Cumberland lead for some years past, in the manufacture of
lead pencils, ought, as well as the artist who uses them. to be obliged
to you for the riddance of those faults by your new method of pre-
paring lead. The samples that I have tried fully warrant me in say-
ing that the Arts are now independent of the natural production,
Cumberland lead.—l remain, my dear SirCHAR, yourLES ROs very sincerely,
BERSON'.

W. Brockedon, Esq.
From J. T. Willimore, Esq., A.E.
23. Polygon, Jan. 1846.
My dear Sir,—l have tried your pencils both for tracing and reduc-
ing, and find them every thing that can be required; they work
freely, and, what is very desirable, they seem quits from grit, A hich
is not the case with pencils generally; they also leave a clear and
excellent transfer upon the etehing ground.—l remain, dear Sir,
yours faithfully,
JAS. T. WILLKORE.

To W. Brockedon, Esq.
From Mr. Edward Duncan.
2, Mornington-place, May 11, 1846.
My dear Sir,—l have great pleasure in adding mine to the many
favourable testimonials you have received of the great superiority of
the black lead manufactured by your patent process. I have tried
the specimens of pencils you were so kind as to send me, and I have
no hesitation in stating that, in my opinion, they possess every
quality, in a superior degree, that the artiq can require.
Believe me, my dear sir, yours very truly,
To William Brockedon, Esq , F.R.S. E. DUNCAN.
Extract from " Ele nents of Art," by J. D. Harding, Esq., p. 94.

Third kdition.

"Recently the quality of lead pencils, both for purposes of art and
for general use, has been greatly improved,in consequence of the dis-
covery, made by my friend Mr. Brockedon, of the mode of preparing
pure plumbago. For years no fresh lead has been obtained from the
Cumberland mines, and the last having been exhausted long ago,
lead pencils were getting every day worse, and insufferable from grit.
To remedy this, composition pencils have been manufactured ; but
these possess no lustre or depth of colour, and it is difll_ult, some-
times impossible, to efface their markings. By Mr. Brocketion's
Invention we obtain the pure black lead in all its lustre and depth of
colour, without a p article of grit, and of any degree of hardness or
softness ; and the markings from are all easily effaced. So great is
the Improvementin all respects, even over the pure plumbago in its
native state, that t may truly be said that until now a perfect lead
pencil has been unknown. Lead pencils from Mr. Brockedon's
Pure Plumbago are now manufactured by Messrs. Morden and Co ,
and by Messrs. Winsor and Newton."
Extract from an Address delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of
the Geological Society of London, 1846, by Leonard Homer,
V.P.R.S., President of the Society.
"Every year has disclosed new facts in confirmation of the theory,
that accumulations of detrital matter were transformed into their pre
sent condition mainly by the action of heat, accompanied by other che-
mical actions, and the powerful agency of steam and elastic forces
under enormous pressure. A very ingenious process, invented by
Mr. Brokedon, described In a short paper read before us last year,
by which he converts, under very powerful pressure, the powder of
graphite into a solid mass having a conchoidal fracture, and undistin-
guishable from the most compact halve black lead, shows that pres-
sure alone may convert fine detrital matter into solid stone.
" 29, Devonshire-street, Queen-square, Bloomsbury."