The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-08-04
A CURIOUS HOUSE.

Short But Busy Journey.
] know a curious house with two
doors. Into one door go cedar logs
and barrels Of graphite, and out of the
other comes an endless procession of
beautiful pencils, red and black, round
and cornered, big and little, some with
caps of ivory or rubber, and some with
none
1t isn't a very long journey through
that house, but it's a very busy one.
Let us go in. The first room is the
blacklist you ever saw; it looks as if
the whole thing had been dipped into
ink, and if you touch the tip of your
finger anywhere you'll be marked.
There are two long rows of big tanks
in which graphite and clay are being
washed and cleaned. and there are
pans of blackness itself, and there's
large tub with wheel running around
in it. This persevering wheel is simply
mixing together the two substances,
for graphite alone is too soft to use; it
must be joined with clay, the more
clay the harder the pencil.
But there's an interesting thing 60
ing on even in this black hole. Out of
a small machine comes all the time a
soft black string, and falls on board
in a queer-looking pile. This is press;
into the top is poured the thick, tough
paste that comes out of the mixing
tub, and, being squeezed more than it
can bear, it is pushed out small
square hole in the bottom. When the
board is full Of yards and yards of the
tangled-looking stuff, it goes into the
hands of boy, who was white once
though you wouldn't think it, so COW
cred are face and hands with the black
of the leads he works with.
The business of this youth is to
straighten the leads, and he does it by
laying the soft string across board
three or four times as long as pencil,
pushing it up evenly against the raised
edge, and cutting it off. Length after
length he thus lays straight, and when
the board is full it goes into a very hot
room to dry.
May be you think the leads are now
ready to take up their residence in
their cedar houses; but they must go
through another process, or they would
crumble as fast as we sharpened the
pencil When dry they are cut into
pencil lengths, packed tightly into
cases and baked. Now they are ready
to use.
While all this has been happening to
the lead home has been prepared for
it to live in. Pencil houses are made
in blocks, like city houses, always six
in row. When the cedar comes into
the room it is in the shape of little
boards, somewhat longer than pencil,
and as wide as six pencils side by side.
Half of the boards are nearly as thick
as pencil and the other half very thin
for roofs, as you will see. First the
thicker boards go through a machine
that plows six little square grooves in
them, and now at last both cedar and
lead are ready to be joined for life, to
wear out in useful work together.
This happens in a most disagreeable
room, strong with the odor of glue, and
at the hands Of sticky, dreadful-look-
ing girls and boys. The first girl daubs
one of the clean, sweet-smelling cedar
boards with hot glue, and pushes it
along to the next. This girl takes in
one hand some leads, spreads them out
like fan, and presses six of them into
the six little grooves, where they fit
perfectly. Then she pushes it back to
the first girl, who slaps on the roof in
a second, before the glue has time to
cool. Now it goes to a boy who packs
it on top of pile in an iron frame,
where it is screwd down to prevent it
from warping. After another rest in
the drying-room, the ends are sawed
off square, and they are ready TO go
downstairs.
They go by themselves; that is, they
are placed one by one in the top of q
case that reaches to the floor below, to
the very jaws of a machine. AS one of
these blocks touches the bottom of the
long case, finger of steel comes up
and pushes it forward, between two
sets of'small knives, and it comes out
the other side cut into six nice round
pencils.
They are now perfect for use, but
they have to be smoothed to fit them
for polite society. They are polished
in droll way. A man stands before
an endless belt full OF notches, and
feeds it, pencil to a notch all the
time. The BELTS moving slowly along,
and the next moment the pencil passes
under four wooden hands with gloves
of emery, which polish it off as if they
liked the fun, while the pencils'ra-tle
but can not get away, and in a second