Abbeville progress., 1914-06-06
Of TODAY
Made of Graphite and Hardly a
Century Old.
Originally of Lead and Still SO Called
Popularity, They Are Manufactured
by Machinery-Hard to Find
Good Wood.

There are people surviving even to-
day who can remember when the
lead pencii as We know it today was
not Like friction matches and pins,
lead pencils have becom" such an
everyday necessity, so cheap and in
such constant reluisition that little
Thought is given to ,hem. to their Ori-
gin or the process OF manufacture.
II was not until well near the mid
die of the nineteenth century that
quill pens were succeeded by steel
pens. and il was in mparatively re-
cent times that the lead pencil of to-
day, consisting of a vein OF graphite
inclosed within strips OF wood, was
invented, says the Cleveland Plain
Dealer The nineteenth century was
well under way when the only lead
pencils known were. IN fact, pencils Of
lead. literally what the name implied.
They took various forms, simply frag-
ments of the common mineral lead.
exactly such lead as We see today in
the form of lead pipes and sheet lead
cut. rolled. or pounded into strips or
pencils
If anyone will take piece Of ordi-
nary lead, say from lead pipe, with
a knife scrape or cut away the little
corrosion on the outer surface. and
make a rounded point so that it viii
run smoothly. he will find that it serves
very well as a pencil. The mark
which it makes is lighter in color than
that made by the graphite pencil, but
It is perfectly legible and it is not
so easily erased.
In the district schools in the early
part OF the nineteenth century it was
the custom of pupils to have these
homemade lead pencils, as we have
indicated. that were merely sticks or
strips of lead sharpened to point,
and they were well nigh indeetructi-
BILE, for much use made little impress
sion upon the point.
The first graphite pencils were
crude. They consisted simply of strips
of naked graphite and they were un-
couth, inconveniently modelled and un-
popular because they soiled the hands.
Finally, the lead pencil consisting OF
the graphite inclosed in wood came
into being and at first it was crude.
Now, graphite is not lead, although
1t is a mineral. but from the fact,
probably, that IL succeeded the real
lead pencil and made a clear black
mark 1t was styled black lead" by
which name 1t continues to pass to-
day.
Graphite is mined in various parts
of the world. in parts Of Scandinavia.
Germany, Russia, Austria. Wales and
In several parts of the United States.
1t has been mined commercially on
the north side of Mount Monadnock in
New Hampshire, but that was many
years ago.
The graphite as 1t comes from the
mines is crude, and one might as well
attempt to trace line with piece Of
hard coal as with a piece OF rough
graphite 1t must first be refined, and
refining is accomplished by grinding
1t. Transforming it into powder. wash
ing it and precipitating it in water un-
til the pure graphite is left in the form
of a residuum. This is placed in
molds and kiln dried, resulting in the
graphite as we have it in different
kinds of pencils.
AS important as the graphite is the
wood from which the pencils are made.
This wood is clear. The wood for the
manufacture of lead pencils should be
straight-grained, and must be free
from knots. A great deal of the wood
for lead pencils made in this country
comes from Florida, and considerable
of it comes from other parts Of the
south
1t is known as red cedar, although 1t
is not. strictly speaking, cedar, al
though belonging to the same family.