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Jan 1, 1560
Graphite Pencils
Pencils did not contain lead at this time though they were called lead pencils by writers. The writing medium is a form of Carbon, graphite. These writing instruments were made from high quality natural graphite mined at Cumberbatch, in England then wrapped in a string or inserted into wooden tubes. These pencils became knows as "Black lead pencils" rather than just lead pencils. The creating of pencils at this time started becoming more and more popular as it spread throughout the world. -
Modern Process of making a pencil
French Chemist Nicholas Jacques Conté received a patent for the modern process for making pencil leads by mixing powdered graphite and clay, forming sticks, and hardening them in a furnace.According to Petroski, Nicholas's colleague, " The brittle leads were inserted into wooden cases of modified design." Petroski described in detail how the pencils cases closely resembeled those of German designs. Though the process of creating the "Lead" was an original invention. -
Improvising to create a pencil
Pencils were now being produced at Nuremburg, in what is now Germany, by gluing sticks of graphite into cases assembled from two pieces of wood. The graphite used by the Germans was not the same high quality graphite used by England. The high quality graphite was avaliable only in England due to the graphite mine being discovered there. The pencil's core made by the Germans was made by mixing, sulfur and many other binding agents. -
The Eraser
Pencils before this time were not equipped with erasers. William H. Maurice, a Philadelphia, PA, stationer, frst introduced the idea of the eraser in 1847. Maurice had the idea of the eraser that today comes attached to the pencil. Though not long after his idea caught the attention of pencil making companies the detachable eraser came into the light. The detachable eraser has a small sleeve with a triangular bit at the end. -
Pencil being made
Dixon set up a new factory just outside New York City that used graphite to manufacture crucibles for melting metals, polish for cast iron stoves, and, on a limited scale, pencils. However, most lead pencils sold in the U.S. were still imported from Europe, increasingly from Germany as the quality of German pencils improved with adoption of the Conté process. In 1861, Eberhard Faber set up a factory in New York that made pencils using leads from Germany. -
Round lead pencils
In order to use round lead, it was necessary to cut matching grooves in the two pieces of wood. Petroski states that by the late 1870s U.S. pencil makers had machines with the precision and speed to mass produce wood-cased pencils with round leads. by the early 19th century, round lead was being used in mechanical pencils -
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