The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1920-03-19
HOW The LEAD
PENCIL IS MADE
Graphite First Used In
Manufacture $50
Years Ago

Metallic lead was first used in PEN
ellis for making black marks on pa
per. For that reason they were
called lead pencils and the name re-
tanned to this day is the same, altho
all lead" pencils now are made from
graphite or plumbago, form of car
bon found, I'm the earth and having
nothing to do'with lead.
Graphite was, first used for this
purpose about three and half cen
turtles ago. The graphite obtained
from British mines was so pure that
II gave fairly satisfactory results in
writing, without any special prepara-
tion; all that was necessary was to
cut It out into sticks of the proper
size and incase the sticks in wood to
protect them. For long time there
fore the British nearly monopolized
the pencil business of the world.
In 1851 the manufacture OF pencils
was started in Germany. The indus
try grew rapidly until within a short
time the Nuremberg district became
the worlds greatest pencil-producing
center. Generation after generation,
the descendants of Caspar Faber. the
pioneer in the German pencil indus
try, have continued in the pencil bus
mess.
Shortly before the American Civil
war a great-grand-son, Eberhard Fa-
Der, emigrated to this country where
he soon set up in the pencil-manufac-
turing business. Since that time a
number of other pencil factories have
been established and American-made
pencils supply large part of the
worlds demand.
Graphite as it comes from the
mines usually contains impurities
such as iron oxides, silicates, etc.
These have to be removed before it
can be worked up into pencils as they
would make the finished product grit
ty and "scratchy" Graphite occurs
rather abundantly in thesearths crust
but much Of il contains too many i'm
purities for use in pencils; that from
mines in Mexico. Bohemia, Ceylon
and Siberia is considered the best.
The mineral as IL comes from the
impurities are taken out by hand. 1t
is then reduced to a powder by ma
chimes specially designed for that
work and then poured into tubs con-
tanning water. The heavy impurities
sink to the bottom while the lighter
graphite remains at the top where ii
can be easily taken off. Centrifugal
machines are sometimes used for sep
arating the graphite from other sub
stances in the ore but the results are
not as good as those obtained with
water. The final step in preparing
the material is to pass it through fill
ter presses.
II is then mixed by machinery with
clay that has been refined by SINH
lar treatment. The clay is used for
'tempering, the greater the proper
tion OF clay the harder the finished
"leads" and the small the proportion
the softer.
The graphite clay h:ixturG. when
we'll kneaded together, is nodded into
leaves and placed, while still plastic,
in hdraulic presses. 1t Is forced out
the presses through dies of tie size
and shape necessary to produce the
kind of lead desired. These dies are
made Of emerald sapphire or other
hard minerals because softer mater
falls would wear away TO rapidly
AS the plastic mixture COMES forth
in a continuous string 1t is cut to re-
quired lengths, ordinarily about seven
inches. Compression in this process
materially affects the quality of the
lead, that subjected to the highest
pressures writing best and giving the
most satisfactory all-around service.
Finally the sticks of leaJ arc bak-
ed in furnaces. They are thee ready
TO be given their wooden cases which
protect them against breakage and
provide convenient grip for the
writer's fingers.
Red cedar has been found the best
, wood for pencils because 1t is close
grained, whites easily and is capable
of a high polish. After being cut into
slabs about seven inches long, two
and a half inches wide and a quarter
inch thick the wood is placed in kilns