Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1868-06-19
PENCIL.LEAD MINES AND LEAD
PENCILS.

Every one knows what a black lead pen
ell is, but it is not generally known that
there is not a particle of lead in the pencil
4 The material variously known as black lead,
graphite or plumbago, is almost wholly
composed Of carbon. It probably owes its
misnomer to the fact that previous to the
employment of graphite for making pencils,
common lead was used, and this within the
present century. For a long time the best
graphite was obtained, not in very large
quantities, at RorrowdaIe in the English
county Of Cumberland, where it was dis
covered in 1864, early in the reigno of Queen
Elizabeth, and pencils much ike those still
in general use, we're produced in the year
following. As the supply of the graphite
5 known in Cumberland, while in the mine,
by the title Of wad). was not large, the
British government, from the first, took
great pains to prevent to expectation Of the
article, and even to limit its home sale to a
/ supply Just sufficient to meet the trade, and
}even in the North America, but Of very
inferior quality. The Cumberland mines
we're worked only few weeks in each year,
yet the yield Of wad was estimated at e40,-
600 a year While the graphite lasted
England lad a monopoly in supplying the
best pencils to the world Year after year,
for a century past the graphite deposit in
Cumberland became "fne by degrees and
gradually less. The result was that gra-
phite powder had to be compressed into a
solid cake from which pencils could be sup.
Piled. A French variation, said to be an
improvement, was to mix the powdered and
purified graphite with clay, which is largely
done still
Nearly one hundred and fifty years ago,
the pencil manufacture commenced in Eeng-
land, and improved in France, was trans
planted to the village Of Steinnear Nurem-
berg, in Bavaria, and, little more than a
century since, Casper Faber there began to
make the pencils which continue to be made
by his descendants, and bear the family
name though the world. The present John
Lothair Faber, great grandson of Casper,
has been head of the firm since 1899, and is
not only very wealthy, but has recently
been ennobled by the king of Bavaria, One
of his brothers is associated with bin at
Stein, in the processes Of manufacture; the
youngest of the three, Eberhard Faber,
represents, the firm, for the Western
Word, at New York. Stein is literally a
town of pencil factories, of which Baron
Faber is the ruler, taking care of the health,
government, education, industry, thrift,
amusements Of the inhabitants, and always
living in their midst. It may be asked
how do the Fabers make lead pencils with
out the famous graphite from Cumberland?
1t appears that twenty years ago John
Peter Albert, a Frenchman, resident in
Asiatic Siberia, having heard of the gold
discoveries in California, began to examine
the sandy beds Of various rivers flowing into
the Arctic Ocean. He found samples of
pure graphite, evidently brought a consid-
cradle distance by force Of the stream, in
one of the mountain gorgos near Irkurtsk,
and pursuing his discovery, tracked back to
branch of the Salau Mountain range, on
the very summit of Mount Baiougol, 275
miles west of the town of Irkutsk, near the
Chinese frontier, in the midst Of the rocky
desert, and found pure graphite. After
years of costly labor Albert found an ex-
baustless deposit of graphite equal to the
best ever taken from Cumberland. Beside
decorating and rewarding him, the Russian
government changed the name of Mount
Batougol to that of Mount ALBERT. Nearly
every crowned head in Europe has honored
him. With the consent Of the Russian
government, ALBERT now supplies Faber's
house exclusively with graphite from the
mine in Asiatic Siberia. Pencils of this
material we're first made by Baron Faber In
1861, and we're not introduced into the
American market until 1865, from which
time artists and others perceived and ac-
kuowledged their superiority. If the world
were to endure Thousand years more, there
is sufficient graphite in Mount ALBERT to
supply its population with good black-lead
pencils. Scientific Aaeficda.