The Opelousas courier., 1899-12-16
STORY OFALEADPENCIL,
SOME INTERESTING FACTS CON-
CORNING A FAMILIAR ARTICLE.

aow the Pencil IL Made and Where II.
Component Parts Come Erom-M ucf, O.
h Work Done by Girls-Its Name ,
Misnomer.
An industry for girls that is seldom
exploited, but one whose results mil
lions OF people are daily testing, is the
putting of lead into pencils. Although
no implement is more familiar than
the pencil, few people know how it il
made or where its component parts
come from. The following interest.
ing facts make one feel that in the
manufacture of even so small an oh.
ject o big field geographically, his.
torically and geologically has to be
covered.
"The pine~o or cedar, the former for
cheap pencils, the latter for more ex.
pensive ones" said a well.known
manufacturer of lead pencils, ''arrives
at the factory in small blocks OF
slabs, a little longer than a pencil, q
little wider than six pencils, and OF
proper thickness. If they are to be
colored they are first dyed. All are
treated to q process which removes
the essential oil and which seasons
them perfectly.
"The sourc Of supply for the cedar
il Florida, and so great inroads have
been made upon the forests for the
manufacture of pencils that the wood
10 becoming exhausted. The name
lead pencil is a misnomer and halls
from the sticks Of lead which were the
primitive pencils. The lead is graph
ite or plumbago, and comes from the
province Of Quebec or from Ticon-
deroga, the latter having the largest
mines of the kind ON this contipent.
"One factory turns out 80, 900, 900
pencils a year. The graphite is first
reduced to an impalpable powder by
grinding. Water is then added and
the substance is u through mixers
in a fluid state in order to combine
with it whatever quantity Of clay may
be necessary to give it the grade de-
sired. The more clay the harder the
lead and vice versa. After this mix
ing has been done, which is performed
entirely by machinery, tae mass is
taken from the mixers and run through
filter presses in a way to exclude the
water and reduce it to a doughy con-
s~istency. In order to make the mix
Ing still more thorough, this doughy
mass is then passed through dies, by
which is meant plates with numerous
small perforations under great pres
sure, from which the lead-as I shall
call it in Difference TO common phrase
ology-issues in tiny rods or wires,
in general appearance not unlike the
lead that is put into the pencils,
but, instead of being dry and brittle,
being still in a moist or soft condi-
ton.
"Ihe material receives this treat
ment repeatedly through dies with
apertures of different diameters. I'M
til finally, when the mixing has been
satisfactorily completed, and the mass
is ia proper condition, it is passed
through e set of dies of the exact di-
ameter of the lead that is to go into
the PENCIL. Deft fingers take the
product in this condition, straighteu
out the leads and cut them to lengths
of about three feet. At this stage it
is still comparatively soft and rliable.
After being cut the leads are allowed
to dry, and are then cut to the re-
quired pencil lengths and packed in
crucibles and burned for several hours
in order to extract the last degree of
moisture that remains and to bring
the lead to it's final condition. The
leads are now ready for inserting in
the wooden cases and are sent to the
girls room. The slabs Of wood are
put through a machine, giving each
six grooves. square or round, aud at
tee same time smoothing the face of
the wood.
1.-THE girls are seated in groups of
with slabs, leads and gluepot
before them. The first girl takes a
grooved strip in her right hand aud
six leads spread fan shape in her left,
and with mi motion fills the six
grooves. The next girl coats a groove
strip with hot glue and hands it to
No. 3, who takes the filled strip from
her other neighbor and lays the one
upon the other. The filed and glued
strips ars piled together and left in a
press to dry. After that they are
evened off under a sandpaper wheel
lnd cut into single pencils, when they
are shaped and vanished ready for
The market New York Tribune.