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History: Camel's Hair Pencil

The document summarizes the history and development of pencils. It discusses the discovery of graphite deposits in England in the 1500s and how graphite came to be used in pencils. It describes how early pencils were wrapped in string or sheepskin and the later development of wood casings in the 1500s. The document also discusses innovations like using graphite powder mixed with clay, attaching erasers to pencils in the 1850s, and the growth of pencil manufacturing, especially in the United States in the 19th century.

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kate trisha
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252 views3 pages

History: Camel's Hair Pencil

The document summarizes the history and development of pencils. It discusses the discovery of graphite deposits in England in the 1500s and how graphite came to be used in pencils. It describes how early pencils were wrapped in string or sheepskin and the later development of wood casings in the 1500s. The document also discusses innovations like using graphite powder mixed with clay, attaching erasers to pencils in the 1850s, and the growth of pencil manufacturing, especially in the United States in the 19th century.

Uploaded by

kate trisha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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History

Old Soviet colored pencils with box (circa 1959)

Camel's hair pencil


Pencil, from Old French pincel, from Latin penicillus a "little tail" (see penis; pincellus is Latin from the post-classical period[1])
originally referred to an artist's fine brush of camel hair, also used for writing before modern lead or chalk pencils. [2]
Though the archetypal pencil was an artist's brush, the stylus, a thin metal stick used for scratching in papyrus or wax
tablets, was used extensively by the Romans[3] and for palm-leaf manuscripts.

Discovery of graphite deposit


As a technique for drawing, the closest predecessor to the pencil was silverpoint until in 1565 (some sources say as early as
1500), a large deposit of graphite was discovered on the approach to Grey Knotts from the hamlet
of Seathwaite in Borrowdale parish, Cumbria, England.[4][5][6][7] This particular deposit of graphite was extremely pure and solid,
and it could easily be sawn into sticks. It remains the only large-scale deposit of graphite ever found in this solid form.
[8]
 Chemistry was in its infancy and the substance was thought to be a form of lead. Consequently, it was
called plumbago (Latin for "lead ore").[9][10] Because the pencil core is still referred to as "lead", or "a lead", many people have
the misconception that the graphite in the pencil is lead, [11] and the black core of pencils is still referred to as lead, even
though it never contained the element lead.[12][13][14][15][16][17] The words for pencil in German (Bleistift), Irish (peann luaidhe), Arabic
(‫قلم رصاص‬ qalam raṣāṣ), and some other languages literally mean lead pen.
The value of graphite would soon be realised to be enormous, mainly because it could be used to line the moulds
for cannonballs; the mines were taken over by the Crown and were guarded. When sufficient stores of graphite had been
accumulated, the mines were flooded to prevent theft until more was required.
The usefulness of graphite for pencils was discovered as well, but graphite for pencils had to be smuggled. Because
graphite is soft, it requires some form of encasement. Graphite sticks were initially wrapped in string or sheepskin for
stability. England would enjoy a monopoly on the production of pencils until a method of reconstituting the graphite powder
was found in 1662 in Italy. However, the distinctively square English pencils continued to be made with sticks cut from
natural graphite into the 1860s. The town of Keswick, near the original findings of block graphite, still manufactures pencils,
the factory also being the location of the Derwent Pencil Museum.[18] The meaning of "graphite writing implement" apparently
evolved late in the 16th century.[19]

Wood holders added

Palomino Blackwing 602 pencils


Around 1560,[20] an Italian couple named Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti made what are likely the first blueprints for the
modern, wood-encased carpentry pencil. Their version was a flat, oval, more compact type of pencil. Their concept involved
the hollowing out of a stick of juniper wood. Shortly thereafter, a superior technique was discovered: two wooden halves
were carved, a graphite stick inserted, and the halves then glued together—essentially the same method in use to this day. [21]

New pencils from graphite powder, and graphite and clay


The first attempt to manufacture graphite sticks from powdered graphite was in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1662. It used a
mixture of graphite, sulphur, and antimony.[22][23][24]
English and German pencils were not available to the French during the Napoleonic Wars; France, under naval blockade
imposed by Great Britain, was unable to import the pure graphite sticks from the British Grey Knotts mines – the only known
source in the world. France was also unable to import the inferior German graphite pencil substitute. It took the efforts of an
officer in Napoleon's army to change this. In 1795, Nicolas-Jacques Conté discovered a method of mixing powdered
graphite with clay and forming the mixture into rods that were then fired in a kiln. By varying the ratio of graphite to clay, the
hardness of the graphite rod could also be varied. This method of manufacture, which had been earlier discovered by the
Austrian Joseph Hardtmuth, the founder of the Koh-I-Noor in 1790, remains in use.[25] In 1802, the production of graphite
leads from graphite and clay was patented by the Koh-I-Noor company in Vienna.[26]
In England, pencils continued to be made from whole sawn graphite. Henry Bessemer's first successful invention (1838) was
a method of compressing graphite powder into solid graphite thus allowing the waste from sawing to be reused. [27]

Pencil in the United States

Pencil, perhaps made by Henry David Thoreau, in the Concord Museum

Pencil manufacturing. The top sequence shows the old method that required pieces of graphite to be cut to size; the lower sequence is the

new, current method using rods of graphite and clay.

American colonists imported pencils from Europe until after the American Revolution. Benjamin Franklin advertised pencils
for sale in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1729, and George Washington used a three-inch pencil when he surveyed the Ohio
Country in 1762.[28][better  source  needed] It is said[by whom?] that William Munroe, a cabinetmaker in Concord, Massachusetts, made the first
American wood pencils in 1812. This was not the only pencil-making occurring in Concord. According to Henry
Petroski, transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau discovered how to make a good pencil out of inferior graphite
using clay as the binder; this invention was prompted by his father's pencil factory in Concord, which employed graphite
found in New Hampshire in 1821 by Charles Dunbar.[7]
Munroe's method of making pencils was painstakingly slow, and in the neighbouring town of Acton, a pencil mill owner
named Ebenezer Wood set out to automate the process at his own pencil mill located at Nashoba Brook. He used the first
circular saw in pencil production. He constructed the first of the hexagon- and octagon-shaped wooden casings. Ebenezer
did not patent his invention and shared his techniques with anyone. One of those was Eberhard Faber, which built a factory
in New York and became the leader in pencil production.[29]
Joseph Dixon, an inventor and entrepreneur involved with the Tantiusques graphite mine in Sturbridge, Massachusetts,
developed a means to mass-produce pencils. By 1870, The Joseph Dixon Crucible Company was the world's largest dealer
and consumer of graphite and later became the contemporary Dixon Ticonderoga pencil and art supplies company.[30][31]
By the end of the 19th century, over 240,000 pencils were used each day in the US. The favoured timber for pencils
was Red Cedar as it was aromatic and did not splinter when sharpened. In the early 20th century supplies of Red Cedar
were dwindling so that pencil manufacturers were forced to recycle the wood from cedar fences and barns to maintain
supply.
One effect of this was that "during World War II rotary pencil sharpeners were outlawed in Britain because they wasted so
much scarce lead and wood, and pencils had to be sharpened in the more conservative manner – with knives." [32]
It was soon discovered that Incense cedar, when dyed and perfumed to resemble Red Cedar, was a suitable alternative and
most pencils today are made from this timber which is grown in managed forests. Over 14 billion pencils are manufactured
worldwide annually.[33] Less popular alternatives to cedar include basswood and alder.[32]
In Southeast Asia, the wood Jelutong may be used to create pencils (though the use of this rainforest species is
controversial).[34] Environmentalists prefer the use of Pulai – another wood native to the region and used in pencil
manufacturing.[35][36]

Eraser attached

Attached eraser on the left; Pencil lead on the right

On 30 March 1858, Hymen Lipman received the first patent for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil.[37] In 1862, Lipman
sold his patent to Joseph Reckendorfer for $100,000, who went on to sue pencil manufacturer Faber-
Castell for infringement.[38] In 1875, the Supreme Court of the US ruled against Reckendorfer declaring the patent invalid. [39]

Pencil extenders
Main article: Pencil extender

Historian Henry Petroski notes that while ever more efficient means of mass production of pencils has driven the
replacement cost of a pencil down, before this people would continue to use even the stub of a pencil. For those who did not
feel comfortable using a stub, pencil extenders were sold. These devices function something like a porte-crayon...the pencil
stub can be inserted into the end of a shaft...Extenders were especially common among engineers and draftsmen, whose
favorite pencils were priced dearly. The use of an extender also has the advantage that the pencil does not appreciably
change its heft as it wears down."[32] Artists currently use extenders to maximize the use of their colored pencils.

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