The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-04-08
LEAD PENCILS.
some Facts About American Lead Pen-
Gils-Hovv they are Made, etct

some Facts About American Lead Pen-
Gils-Hovv They are Made, etc,
An exchange gives an interesting ae-
count of the manner In which lead pen
ellis are made, as follows: Graphite of
great purity is 70 und at Ticonderoga
N. Y both in the form suitable for the
manufac lure of erucibles and for the
production of what are enormously
known as "l lead pehcils."n The graphite
is reduced in mills to a fine impalpable
powder. almost as mobile rs water, and
making the fingers as smooth as if they
had been oiled. A process of mixing
with peculiar description of clay is
then used, according to the degree of
"hardness desired in the pencils; and
the substance having been reduced to a
dough form, one of the most curious
processes of the manufacture is seen. The
duugh is placed in cylinder, within
which screw works a well.fitting
phi ger, and at the bottom is
a plate having holes of the shape
and size of which the lead is
to be cut. AS the coils of tenacious ma
terial issue from these holes, they are
cut up into lengths equal to three pen
ellis, Strengthened, flattened and baked.
1t has been found possible to run coil
such length of unbroken mate
rial having been shown ut the Philadel-
phia centennial exhibition.
The Americans have in their own ter
ritory that Florida cedar which makers
in Europe use so largely for pencils, and
great quantities of the necessary timber
are cut down for the company. The
| cedar is brought home to New jersey,
not in logs, but in blocks seven inches
| long, and these are cut into strips meas
uring three and one-half inches wide by
three -sixteenths thick. This last fact
reveals two differences between the
methods usually employed in Europe,
for the pencil-slip is in this factory made
of a width to. yield six pencils instead
of being cut singly; and both halves of
the pencil are alike, and not, as in the
other methods, one portion narrower
than the other. Both sides of the pen
cil-slip are grooved; and the process of
| filling the slips, which is done by hand,
is exceedingly interesting. Each girl
engaged in filling takes up q grooved
slip. in one hand. a bunch. of the
with a dexterity begotten of prac-
tice, very rapidly inserts six of
the stalks in the slip. This being handed
to second girl, the latter receives from
a third worker the second half of the
| slip, over which brush of hot glue has
just been passed. The two halves are
brought together, each one, it will be re-
marked, EN- bracing half of the "lead, !"
and then, when row of these slips has
been filled, they are pressed under q
screw frame until the glue is dry. The
next process is to smooth the ends
where the +" leads" project, and then we
reach another very interesting machine
In this machine revolving cutter
seizes the slip, and with two cuts re-
moves the superfuous wood, separates
the pencils and rounds them into shape.
The pencils fall from this machine in a
continuous stream, or rather in six con-
tinuous streams, each pencil finished for
use, and so smooth, it is alleged, that
the finest sand-paper would scratch
them.
American ingenuity is also seen in an
arrangement by which the chips falling
from this machine are sucked away by
the blower" into the engire-room and
consumed as fuel, with the result of
keeping the place perfectly free from
rubbish. The next curiosity is the
counting board" a grooved board or
table, on which, by rubbing a handful
OF pencils over it, and seeing that each
groove is full, gross of pencil Is can be
accurately counted OF in five or six
seconds Other ingenious machines are
in use for staining and vanishing the
pencils, stamping marks and names, and
finally packing them in singular and
convenient method, the package being
oval in shape. By the use of checks on
the quantity of material given out, the
company boasts of being able to secure
tlat if even one pencil ofthe $4,000 made
daily is abstracted it will be missed !;
and incidents are not wanting where
this fact. being unknown and unsus-
pected, has brought people into trouble
who thoug ht that one pencil might be
removed from among such large nnm-
bers. The rule of the house is that if
Il pencil is missed from a room, every
one employed in that room is discharged
unless the pencil he found; and there is
a further rule that no one discharged
shall in any case be rC-employed. Every
one in the place is interested in securing
the honesty both of visitors and CO.
| workers.