The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1872-09-06
How Lead.Pencils are Made.

the wooden cover is the material popu-
larly called black lead-a name without
meaning, since no lead enters into its
composition. Its true name is graphite,
and it slumbers in gneiss, mica, slate,
quarts or greensboro, until disinterred
for use.
Valuable graphite mines were discov-
cred at Borrowdale, county of Cumber-
land, England, 1854, but these mines
were long since exhausted. John Peter
Albert discovered and opened mine
in Eastern Siberia, in lS47, and after
seven years Of labor, disclosed an I'M
broken layer of the best graphite the
world has ever seen.
The wooden cover is made of cedar.
wood, the best of which is brought from
Florida.
The year after the Cumberland mines
were opened, lead pencils were manu-
factured differing but little from those
of the present day. The Cumberland
graphite was, however, sawed into thin
slabs. and these into strips, which were
glued into the wood. But after the
yield was exhausted, and only impure
refuse could be obtained, attempts were
made to utilize this waste material.
In France, in the year l795, the FRO.
cess was invented Of mixing the pow
dered and purified graphite with clay.
II was entirely successful, and was
found adapted to manufacturing a ma
terial of different degrees of hardness
impossible before.
This process is as follows The graph
ite is sorted, crushed and, by washing,
or sluicing, purified About the same,
treatment is applied to the clay; after
whica these two materials are spread
out in shallow pans, and dried at a low.
temperature. They are then mixed in
the proper proportions, and the mix.
ture again wetted and ground in iron
mills for number of hours, the mills
working day and ght. This process
of drying and grinding is repeated until
the mass attains the proper degree of
fineness and evepness, when workmen
knead it into cake. This cake is
placed in cast-iron cylinder, and, by
slow process. squeezed through a
small hole at the bottom, from which il
issues, falling in serpentile coils on a
board below 1t is Strengthened out,
cut off the desired lengths, laid close
together in layers, prevented from
warping by a slight pressure. Aftci
being dried in moderate temperature
| it is packed in hermeticallysealeo
crucibles, and submitted to a high heat
in eculiarly.constructed ovens. The
lead-for so it is called-is now finished
and ready to be tested by the manufac
turers.
Blocks of cedar are cut up into strips
of the length and little more thar
half the thickness of the pencil. These
are grooved the size of the lead, thu
lead glued in and similar strip o
wood glued over it for covering.
So far as the use of the pencil goes
it is finished; but for the sake of az
pearance, the exterior must be rounded
smoothed, and polished, and then it
ready for sale.-Erchange.
Something About YOarseif.
Supposing your age to be fifteel
wears or thereabouts, | can figure yol
up to dot. You have l60 bones ant
; 500 muscles; your blood weighs =
pounds; your heart is five inches il
length and three inches in diameter;
beats 70 times a minute, 4, 100 time
ner hour, l0O,8OO times per day, an
26, ,725,2OO per year. At each beat
little over two ounces OF blood is throw
out of it; and each day it receives an
) discharges over seven tons of that WOE
, derful fluid. Your lungs will contain
gallon of air, and you inhale d. ,OC
gallons day. The aggregate sursat
, of the air cells of your lungs, supposir
them to be spread out, exceed 20,U
square inches. The weight of yol
+ brain is three po. nds; when you are
7 man it will weigh about eight ounc
I more. Your nerves exceed 100000
\ in number. 1 ."s i.."a "-YL
Your skin is composed of three la
;. ers, and varies from one-fourth to on
= eighth of an inch in thickness. III
;, area of your skin is about 100 squa
inches, and you are subjected to an ,
, mospheric pressure of fifteen pounds
q the square inch. Each square inch
9 your skin contains $500 swesting tub
q or perspiratory pores, each OF whi
II may be likened to a little drain t
d one fourth of an inch long, making I
aggregate length or the entire suface
% vour body Of POI, 1866 feet, or a tilo dit
for draining the body almost fortynn
% long. 'n"S -ei 10 ~ 'zs sIa55 a5
~ -Ggaayf '-T-TT-z-EE - - '--LT3t .ygof.
's "Iwill preach from dat portion Of
~ Scripture disi evening, Saia q colo,
dothinie, s"whRs de Poatls pp'sg N
y, his lpisns NJ Do 'phssssns. ,-a,r. :