The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-12-04
DEVELOPMENT or THE PENCIL 4


t- IN - - $500 ~ TIE PENCll.
Efforts Of the Last Fifty Years to =.
prove This Ever Necessary Artic,. '
There Is evidently something wroa z
with the common lead pencil a. Nj. NV
inventors imagine that there is. for !
great variety Of new designs for NJ,
ing an ever-pointed pencil have hesnl
developed and put on the market witn
in a short time. '',1
For many years lead pencil means
one Of two things, either a stitch j.
baked black lead and clay inclosed 4 \
cover Of wood, or little cylinder n
similar substance inserted in a banda
which had screw arrangement back "
the lead to work the lead forward ~ u
was used up. OF che wood-coyered pen.
ellis there were few grades for =.
binary house and Office use, artists ne,..
ellis, and big-leaded fiat pencils ~
carpenters. All of these were made 4
the same general way by laying strin|
Of lead in q groove in one side Of !
piece of wood, preferably cedar, gluinrl
another piece OF wood over it, and then
finishing the outside in an octagonalo o.
oval form.
Everybody was supposed to carry NJ
pocketknife, and knife was needed
every time pencil had to have new
point. Women and others who did mi
like to soil their fingers by sharpening
pencils carried the ever-pointed me-.
chanical pencils, and for half century
or more no jewelers. stock was re-
garded as complete unless it had an a.
sortment Of these pencils in gold, pearl
and many other precious and beautiful
materials. Staff officers in the English
and European armies wear such pencils
to receipt orders; women use them ii
the ballroom, boudoir and drawing
room, and many gentleman Of the old
school has his pencil always dangling on
his watch chain, ready for use. Force
casional use they are well enough, and
probably will always hold place.
v The effort to make the use of the a.
binary pencil easier began genera
tion ago, and one OF the first inventions
for that purpose was Of the well-remem-
bered cone-shaped pencil sharpener,
holding steel blade at one side, where
q hole at one side to let out the shavings
had been cut. While the blades were
sharp they worked well enough, but
this sharpness seldom lasted much Be-
yond the time when the vender showed
how nicely the sharpener worked. After
that the sharpener would wiring of the
end of the lead every time just as the
pencil seemed ready for use. Some
years ago noteworthy advance was
made in mechanical pencils and the new
pencil came into very general use. This
was pencil case not materilly differ
ent in size from the wooden pencil, only
not SO long, which received round
lead about four inches long and as big as
the lead in the wooden pencils. The LEAD
was held by split tube, which was
closed by being drawn into an inclinef
casing by spring. The fault with this
is that the lead is apt to be forced bach
If one presses hard upon it in writing
and again that If the tube be opened
carelessly the lead falls out and is lost
* very ingenious improvement was
made upon this, in which the lead was
fed forward about one-fourth OF an
inch each time the spring was pressee
and held from falling out at all times
This still had the fault that the ieao
would press back. Then another cay
was invented in which the lead IS nel'
from pressing back, but the feeding y,
ward is not certain. Another pence
made to compete with the wooden one'
in price carries long movable ieau
which is carried forward by q holue,
operated by a coarse screw tnreau =
~ HE outside of the wooden casing
These pencils have been selling on =
street recently for three cents eacn.
While the pencil case makers W
busy the pencil makers were sehei ,.a,,
also. and the result was that q n'
while ago one maker got out pens,
inclosed in paper. The paper is Wosa
on in a spiral, and all that IS neea i
to sharpen the pencil is to 9, loosen s'lr.1 y \
end of the paper and unroii . sps m
two of it disclosing the LEAD. =
wooden pencil makers were pea'eI .aa
a time hut now one of them has s0a
the paper pencil makers one De.s ~
-
sniral like the paper one. The wo n.'
be torn off with the fingers. on
other ~ s end Of the pencil from the pom
is a metal ferule in when Z l 'ssn .,
set. You take this feruie on Van md III
have exposed new bit OF ieau, 70 l, briul
side you find spiral sharpen.,
the lead to a point.-N. !. gun
5 y,ctoria's Descendants. ....r.;gu
Germany has had fye $50 rsig,