Improvements in the Manufacture and Production of Pencils.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Jan., 1896-Accepted, 22nd Feb., 1856
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture and Production of Pencils.
I JAMES YATE JOHNSON of 47 Lincoln's Inn Fields in the County of
London Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of this invention (which has
been communicated to me from abroad by The Eagle Pencil Company of
73 Franklin Street New York City in the County and State of New York United
States of America) and in what manner the same is to be performed to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to that class of pencils in which the sheath is composed
of lamine of paper, wood, or other material, so arranged and put together that
successive layers of the material can be torn off or removed with the fingers to
expose fresh portions of the lead or other marking material (I will refer to it as the
lead) as it wears away in use. Various pencils of this general kind have heretofore
been proposed, and some of them have been more or less successfully used.
The pencil made in accordance with the present invention has a sheath composed
of a thin continuous fillet, strip, or shaving of a suitable material (such for example
as wood) which has the form of a helix, the nested folds of which are oblique to
the axis of the helix, their angle of obliquity determining the taper of the point.
The lead is contained and held within the helix, and the nested folds of the helix
are externally finished and held together in any suitable way, for example, by thin
glue or varnish, or by a thin wrapping of paper, or the like. By unwinding and
removing the thin folds of the helix from the front end of the pencil, the lead
can be exposed to any desired extent and fresh portions thereof can be exposed as
the lead wears away by use.
In carrying out the invention it is preferred to proceed as follows.-
First take a sulid stick of wood which has the shape or approximately the shape
of the finished pencil.
This stick is then softened thoroughly by steaming, as in the manufacture of
wooden veneers, this being done in order to bring the wood into a condition in
which it may be cut into thin shavings by cuts crosswise of the grain if need be,
without danger of breaking the shaving or fillet.
After the stick has been thus thoroughly softened, it is cut into a thin shaving, or
fillet, of helical form, the folds of which have surfaces parallel with one another
and oblique to the axis of the helix. This operation is conveniently performed by
putting the stick in a lathe where it is revolved and by acting on it with a cutting
tool which is at the proper angle to the stick to make a cut of the obliquity
required to form the taper to be imparted to the pencil point. This tool preferably
is so set that at the inner point of its cutting edge, or that point of the edge nearest
the axis of the stick, it does not extend quite to the centre or axis of the
latter, thus leaving in the centre of the stick a solid uncut core which separates
from the helix and leaves in the axis thereof a longitudinal hole to receive the
lead.
Suitable feed mechanism is used to give the tool a slow movement lengthwise of
the stick during the cutting operation the rate of feed movement being governed
by the thickness which the fillet, or shaving, cut from the stick, is to have.
By this operation, a thin helical fillet strip or shaving in one continuous length,
is obtained, which when its folds are nested together, or packed one within the
other, forms a sheath having an axial hole or passage, through it for the reception
of the lead, the said folds being oblique, or inclined, to the axis of the helix or in

page_text: other words a fillet strip or shaving having a surface generated by a line inter-
secting an axis at a fixed angle oblique to the axis, the point of intersection moving
uniformly along the axis while the line revolves about the axis uniformly on the
point of intersection as a centre, or, in other words, it is a machine screw surface
having a small pitch and an angle of inclination such as is desired for the taper
point of the completed pencil.
After the insertion of the lead, which can be secured in place by glue, or other
suitable means, the pencil is finished exteriorily in any desired way, the helical
folds of the continuous shaving, or fillet, being tightened around the lead and held
together by any suitable means. The surface of the sheath, for example, can be
coated with a thin glue solution, or varnish, and finished like any other pencil; or
in any suitable way for example a thin wrapper of paper can be supplied, perforated
at suitable distances apart so as to permit portions of it to be readily torn off when
a new point is needed.
In the accompanying drawings
Figure 1 is a view of the solid wooden stick A from which the helix is to
be cut.
Figure 2 represents at B in elevation and axial section, the helically cut
continuous shaving or strip, produced from the stick in the manner hereinbefore
described; and at C, the wooden core left by the cutting operation. In this
figure the folds of the helix which stand at such angle of obliquity, or inclination,
to the axis of the peucil, as required for the taper of the pencil point, are partly
but not tightly nested together.
Figure 3 is an elevation; and
Figure 4 is an axial section of the completed pencil; showing also in section
and in perspective detached, the conical plug E, to which the rear end of the lead
is attached.
Figure 5 is a perspective view illustrating clearly the peculiar helical formation
of the fillet or shaving B.
In Figures 3 and 4, the sheath is marked B, and the lead D.
As hereinbefore stated the lead can be glued into the sheath alone but some-
times it is preferred to secure it also to a cone-shaped plug E of wood, or other
suitable material, which is glued into, and fills, the conical recess in the rear, or
upper, end of the pencil as shewn in Figure 4.
In this pencil all that is needed to expose the lead is to unwind the fillet, or
shaving, from the point end of the pencil for a suitable distance and then break it
off an operation which can readily be performed with the fingers. Pliable, or
flexible, material other than wood may be employed for the sheath but wood is
preferred on the score of cheapness and ease of manufacture as when thoroughly
steamed and softened, the wood is in admirable condition for being operated on;
aud the fillet, band, or shaving produced by the cutting operation can under these
conditions be manipulated with ease and safety.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
1. A pencil having a case, or sheath, formed of a helix composed of a fillet,
strip, or shaving, having its folds oblique, or inclined, to the axis of the helix and
nested, or packed, one within the other, substantially as, and for the purposes,
hereinbefore described.
2. A pencil having a case, or sheath, formed of a helix composed of a fillet,
strip, or shaving, having its folds oblique, or inclined, to the axis of the helix, and
nested, or packed, one within the other, and formed so that when thus nested there
will remain in the interior an axial hole for the reception of the lead, or marking,
material, substantially as herein before described.
3. A pencil case, or sheath, formed of a helix (B) composed of a fillet, strip, or
shaving, having its folds oblique, or inclined, to the axis of the helix, and nested,

page_text: or packed, one within the other, in combination with the lead D, and the conical,
or tapering, plug E, secured to the lead, and seated in the upper, or rear, end of
the sheath substantially as herein before described.
4. The hereinbefore described improvement in the manufacture of pencils, con-
sisting first in forming a solid stick of wood into the shape of the finished pencil,
or approximately so, then steaming and softening the same, then cutting it up into
a helix composed of a thin continuous fillet, strip, or shaving, having its folds
oblique, or inclined, to the axis of the helix, with an axial hole, or passage, through
the helix for the reception of the lead, and then inserting the lead, nesting, or
packing, the folds closely together, and finishing the pencil, substantially as
hereinbefore described.
Dated this 2nd day of January 1896.
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.