The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-11-14
HOW PENCILS ARE MADE.
Wood Comes from the south--oraP"
lie Tempered BY an Alloy OF Gay.

| representing the laDois, ehoue"
genius of many thousands OF peopie,
conserved in processes, methods ana
systems, which require a thousand
men and women to operate. In other
words. II requires the service OF
thousand people to produce one lead
pencil, but in the same day the hnish'
ing touches are put upon the one pen
Gil. this force will turn out 25O,ooo
pencils.
The lead pencils. as its name would
seem to imply, is not made OF LEAD
but of graphite. Originally 1t was
made of metallic lead incased In wood
thence its name. But 1t was not un'
tii after the discovery Of the famous
Cumberland graphite mines In Eng.
land, 1865, that graphite supplanted
metallic lead in the pencil.
For two centuries the lead pencil
industry was confined to England, but
in 1901, when Casper Faber OF the
village of Stein, near Nuremberg. Ba'
varia. began in his village a small
pencil plant the industry gradually
shifted into Germany, where 1t pros
pered to such an extent as to become
worlds center, and remained such
for about a century. Even to this
day there are about co pencil manu-
factories in Nuremberg.
The fact that the cedar suitable to
go into a lead pencil, owing to its
straight grain and smooth texture, is
| found exclusively in the southern
states. particularly in Florida and
Alabama. united with the circum-
stance of the war tariff and the At
lantic blockade in the Cos. cut off the
supply of the raw material to the
German manufactures and created
conditions for the successful promo.
tion Of the industry in the United
States.
The graphite, which is the essen
tial part of the pencil, comes chiefly
from Ceylon. Eastern Siberia, Bohe-
mia and Mexico. The ore is often
found in quantity In other localities,
but it is so mixed with oxides of iron,
silicates and other impurities as to
render 1t unfit for the manufacture OF
pencils. AS II is the best graphite
mined, it has to be treated by hand to
|
are nearly always found in certain
quantities. In cheaply made pencils
these foreign elements are readily de.
tected by the greasy or scratchy run
of the pencil on paper. After the
graphite has been broken in small
bits and separated as nearly as pos.
sible from its impurities by hand, II
is pulverized and then placed in tubs
of water, allowing the impurities to
precipitate while the graphite floats
upon the surface. A centrifugal de.
vice is often used by which the
graphite Is separated by dry process,
but this is not reliable and is little
used in the making of good pencils.
After the water process, the graphite
Is filtered through filter presses when
1T is ready to be treated to the clay
process. This process, which was
discovered In 1920 by M. Conte,
French chemist. permits the manu-.
facturer to produce pencils of differ.
ent grades and adapted to many uses,
AS the graphite from the filter process
would be too soft for ordinary uses
the special clay introduced into 1t,
having been treated to a similar
process as the graphite, gives it the
degree Of hardness desired. The more
clay in the graphite the harder the
lead becomes.
While the clay-graphite mixture is
still in its plastic condition II Is
shaped into loaves and fed to hydrau.
lie presses, which gives them a de-
sired form. The high grade pencils
those OF the greatest wearing quail.
ties--receive higher degree of
pressure. These hydraulic presses
are each provided with sapphire or
emerald die, corresponding to the cal
iber OF the lead desired. The graph,
ite Is forced through the die and
leaves it in one continuous string,
which is cut into lengths suitable for
pencils, usually about 7 inches The
graphite is then ready for use.
After the cedar Stats are kiln dried
or treated by steam processes to ex.
pei all moisture. they are passed
through automatic growing machines,
each slat receiving six semi-circular
grooves into which leads are placed.
brushed with glue and fitted to its
mate. A skillful girl is able, by one
swift movement of her fingers, to
sweep Is or 20 leads into their SOCK.
cts. bunch of these loaded, mated
Stats is thrust into hydraulic press
when all superfiuous glue is squeezed
out and the bundles are locked and
allowed to dry. The glued Stats con-
tanning the leads are then run through
molding machines which turn out the
pencils in round, hexagon or fiat
shapes as desired. Preliminary to
the varnish-coloring process the pen.
ellis are run through sanding ma.
chimes. Both the sand.paperlng and
coloring processes are automatic, the
pencils being fed in quantities in hop
pers. In the latter case they are car
ried one at time through small col
| OrinR yatS and DISCHARGED throuph an