The Russellville Democrat., 1880-04-22
The American Pencil Trade.


 The American Pencil Trade.
 The pencil works of the Dixon Con- pany of New Jersey, established few years ago, present to the visitor many of those novel features in the application of machinery which appear to be character istic of nearly every industry in the United States. Graphite of great purity is found at Ticonderoga, N. Y., both in the form suitable for the manufacture of crucibles and for the production of what are enormously known as "lead pencils" The graphite is reduced in mills to fine impalpable powder, almost as mobile as 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 ill the pencils; and the substance having been reduced to dough form, one of the most curious processes in the manufacture is seen. The dough is placed in cylinder, within which screw works a well-ftting plunger, and at the bottom IS a plate having holes of the shape and size of which the Head" is to be cut. As the coils of tenacious material issue from these holes, they are cut up in lengths equal to three pencils, straightened, flat tened and baked It has been found possible to run coil 4,000 feet long with out breaking; such length of unbroken pencil material having been shown by the Dixon Company at the Philadelphia 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 Dixon Company. The cedar is brought home to New Jer- sey, not in logs, but in blocks inches long, and these again are cut into strips measuring 3b inches wide by 3-16ths thick. This last fact reveals two differ ences between the methods usually em- ployed in Europe, for the pencil-slip is in this factory made of width to yield six pencils instead of being cut singly; and both halves of the pencil are alike. and not, as in the older method, one portion narrower than the other. Both sides of the pencil-slip are equally grooved; and the process of filling the slips, which is done by hand, is exceed ingly interesting. Each girl engaged in filling takes up grooved slip in one hand, bunch of the straight "leads'' in the other, and with dexterity begotton of practice, very rapidly inserts six of the stalks in the slip. This being hand ed to a second girl, the latter receives from third worker the second half of the slip, over which a brush of hot glue has just been passed. The two halves are brought together, each one, it will be remarked, embracing half of the lead" and then, when a row of these slips has been filled, they are pressed under screw frame until the glue is dry. The next process IS to smooth the ends where the Heads" project, and then we reach another very interesting maching. In this machine, revolving cutter seizes the slip, and with two cuts removes the superflous wood, sepa- rates the pencils and rounds them into shape. The pencils fall from this ma chine in continuous stream, or rather in six continuous streams, each pencil finished for use, and so smooth, it is alleged, that the finest sandpaper would scratch them.
 American ingenuity is also seen in an arrangement by which the chips falling from this machine are sucked away by blower" into the engine-room and con sumed as fuel, with the result of keep ing the place perfectly free from rubbish. The next curiosity is the counting board" a grooved board or table, on which, by rubbing handful of pencils over it, and seeing that each groove is r full, gross of pencils can be accurately counted off in five or six seconds. Other ingenious machines are ill use for stain. ing and varnishing the pencils, stamping marks and names, and finally packing them in a singular and convenient meth, cd, the package being oval in shape. By the use of checks on the quantity of ma terial given out, the Dixon Company boasts of being able to secure that if even one pencil of the 80,000 made daily is abstracted it will be missed; and incl dents are not wanting where this fact, being unknown and unsuspected, has brought people into trouble who thought that one pencil might be removed from among such large numbers. The rule of the house is that if a pencil IS missed from room, every one employed in that room is discharged unless the pencil be found and, as there is further rule that no one discharged shall in any case be re-employed, every one in the place is interested in securing the honesty both of visitors and co-workers.