The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-04-22
TIE Story OF THE LEAD PENCIL.


handle lead pencils have ever thought
what wonderful story is hidden in
that small piece of rounded wood |!
DO you know that once little pencil
was alive, both outside and in? That
the soft, black inside with which you
write was once a part of beautiful
leafy tree, growing in luxurious
swamp, ages ago, drinking in SUM-
shine, hiding it away in its stems and
leaves, making it ready for the use of
generations yet to come? Also, that
the outside was once tall cedar tree,
in whose branches the birds sang and
made their nests?
# you will examine your pencil,
you will see that the outside is gen.
orally made of two pieces of cedar.
wood, one larger and thicker than the
other, having a groove in the center.
Igthis groove you will find small
square Of something that we call
black lead, but that is not the right
namefor it, as there is no lead in it.
1t is called plumbago, but the more
appropriate name for it is graphite,
from a Greek word which means to
write. Graphite is metamorphic, or
charred coal +; and as coal is wood
much changed in shape, graphite is
wood much more changed.
The story of graphite is the story
of coal, which means beautiful fern
tree groping in the sunshine; then
change, and the trees are laid low and
the land covered with water another
change, and trees are again growing
in the sunshine still another tidal
wave, and the waters reign supreme.
Then the heat and the heavy pres
sure of the deposit brought by the
successive tidal waves upon the de-
cayed vegetation which ispeat buried
deep in the earth, form a substance
that we call coal. More changes,
and the result is graphite is used for
pencils, it is ground to powder, then
subjected to great pressure, made in
to firm plates, and sawed into small
strips ready for the pencil. After
the graphite is placed in the groove
prepared for it, the smaller piece of
wood is glued to the larger, with the
graphite inside, and we have our pen
Gil complete, except that it is now
square, and must be put through
machine to take off the corners, max
ing it hexagonal or round, as the
case may be. Now, perhaps, you
would like to know how some pencils
can be soft, and others hard, so I will
explain that graphite, when reduced
to powder is extremely soft, and when
a hard pencil is required, it is neces-
sary to mix different materials, as
clay, chalk, &c. with the powder to
harden it. When clay is used the
mixture is made into strips and bak-
ed the required hardness. Black
chalk is sometimes mixed with the
poorer quality of graphite for very
cheap pencils.
Some of the hardest pencils are Of
ten two-thirds clay the medium
ones, perhaps one-half clay, while
very soft pencil has not as much clay.
Sometimes you will see pencil with
round lead, which is shaped by
being run through holes cut in rubies,
which are hard, red stones. Beds Of
graphite are found in various parts of
the country. There are different
grades, some mines being much su-
peior to others. The finest graphite
has been obtained in Borrowdale,
England, and the Siberian mines yield
an excellent quality. There are also
mines at Ticonderoga, N. Y, and
Sturbridge, Mass.-MS. Helen M.
Hu,I, in Christian Ad00oae.