The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-11-28
DEVELOPMENT or THE PENCIL
Enorts OF the Last FIFTY Years to Im-
prove This Ever Necessary Article.


Enorts OF the Last FIFTY Years to Im-
prove This Ever Necessary Article.
There is evidently something wrong
with the common lead pencil, or else
inventors imagine that there is, for a
great variety of new designs for maxi
ing an ever-pointed pencil have been
developed and put on the market with
In a short time.
For many years lead pencil meant
one of two things, either a stick of
baked black lead and clay inclosed In a
cover of wood, or little cylinder of
| similar substance inserted in handle
which had a screw arrangement back of
the lead to work the lead forward as il
was used up. OF the wood-covered pen
ellis there were few grades for or
binary house and Office use, artists pen
ellis, and big-leaded fiat pencils for
| carpenters. All Of these were made in
the same general way by laying a strip
of lead in groove in one side of q
piece OF wood, preferably cedar, gluing
another piece of wood over it, and then
finishing the outside in an octagonal or
oval form.
Everybody was supposed to carry
pocketknife, and a knife was needed
every time a pencil had to have new
point. Women and others who did not
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 ii had an as
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 in
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. For &C.
casional use they are we'll enough, and
probably will always hold place.
The effort to make the use of the or
binary pencil easier began a genera
ton ago, and one of the first inventions
for that purpose was of the well-remem-
bcred cone-shaped pencil sharpener,
holding a steel blade at one side, where
hole at one side to let out the shayings
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 off the
end of the lead every time just as the
pencil seemed ready for use. Some
years ago noteworthy advance was
,,,ola -, ohnnnol x>av,r;Ic N ri . he ,,axu
pencil came into very general use. This
was a pencil case not materilly differ
ent in size from the wooden pencil, only
not so long, which received q 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 inclined
casing by spring. The fault with this
is that the lead is apt to be forced back
If one presses hard upon it in writing,
and again that IL the tube be opened
carelessly the lead falls out and 10 lost.
y 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 pressed
and held from falling out at all timee
This still had the fault that the lead
would press back. Then another case
was invented in which the lead is held
ward is not certain. Another pencil |
made to compete with the wooden ones |
in price carries n long movable lead, |
which is carried forw ard by holder |
operated by coarse screw thread cut !
in the outside Of the wooden casing. |
These pencils have been selling on the |
street recently for three cents each.
While the pencil case makers were |
busy the pencil makers were scheming |
while ago one maker got out a pencil |
inclosed in paper. The paper is wound
on in n spiral, and all that is needed
TO sharpen the pencil is to loosen the
end of the paper and unroll a spiral or
two of it disclosing the lead. The
wooden pencil makers were beaten for
q time, but now one Of them has gone
the paper pencil makers one better; he
makes his casing of wood, cut into a
spiral like the paper one. The wood can
be torn off with the fingers. On the
other end of the pencil from the point
is a metal ferule in which rubber is
set. You take this ferule off when you
have exposed a new bit Of lead, and in
side you find spiral sharpener to bring
the lead to a point.-N. Y. Sun.
Sewers Of Ancient Catacombs
OF all the romance nations perhaps
the Italians treat their historic monu-
ments with the greatest degree of ia
miliarity; familiarity that, archaeolo-