Pencil , Erasers and Sharpeners

Have you heard this joke:-

When Americans went to the space , they invented with great difficulty a new type of pen which will work in space also , where there will be no pressure.

When Russians went they too with them – PENCILS

   Pencils  one of the oldest invention , still in great use by all specially -kids  and artists.

LEAD PENCILS DO NOT CONTAIN ANY LEAD!!!

Who invented Pencils ?

Pencils are made from Graphite which is a form of carbon. It was first discovered in Seathwaite Valley in England during 1564 by unknown person.  A tree was uprooted in a storm, exposing black substance below it . People thought it to be lead, but it was graphite. Soon it was discovered, a very good writing material and was called black lead. The name lead is still used although pencils donot have any lead. Shortly after this first pencils were made in same area.

But the breakthrough in pencil technology came when French chemist Nicolas Conte developed and patented the process used to make pencils in 1795.

How are pencils made:-

He used a mixture of clay and graphite that was fired before it was put in a wooden case. The pencils he made were cylindrical with a slot. The square lead was glued into the slot and a thin strip of wood was used to fill the rest of the slot. Pencils got their name from the old English word meaning 'brush'. Conte's method of kiln firing powdered graphite and clay allowed pencils to be made to any hardness or softness - very important to artists and draftsmen.

For a beautiful pictorial view of How are pencils made , visit site  -  http://www.pencilpages.com/articles/make.htm

 It starts with a block of cedar (1) which is then cut into slats (2). The slats are then stained (3) and grooves are cut into one surface (4). Prepared leads are placed into the grooves (5) and a second slat is placed on top and bonded with the first (6). This 'pencil sandwich' is then passed through a milling process (7) to separate the individual pencils (8). The pencil is painted and finished (9 & 10), a ferrule crimped onto the end (11), and finally, an eraser is crimped into the ferrule (12)

What do the numbers and letters on pencils mean?

The numbers or letters refer to the hardness or softness of the lead

Early pencils were made using cut pieces of raw graphite dug from the earth. The hardness or softness of these pencils was dependent on the quality or purity of the graphite, and so was difficult - or impossible - to control. Different methods of refining and mixing of graphite were experimented with over the years, but it was not until about 1795 that a Frenchman, Nicolas-Jacques Conté, developed a process for making pencil leads that is still in use today. The early Conté pencils were made in at least four grades, and a numerical grading designation was used to distinguish them - 1 being the hardest, 4 being the softest

In the early nineteenth century, English pencil makers began using a letter designation for varying hardnesses. Softer leads were designated with 'B' (for black), harder leads with 'H' (for hard). Different schemes were used to expand the range of grades, such as 'BB' and 'BBB' for successively softer leads, and 'HH' and 'HHH' for successively harder leads.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, a combination letter-number system had been established and was in use by nearly all European pencil makers, and was also used for some American-made pencils. This system is still in use today, and provides for a wide range of grades, usually consisting of the series:

9H, 8H, ... , 2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B, ... , 8B, 9B

where 9H is the hardest, 9B is the softest.

HB grade pencil in the middle of the range, is considered to be the preferred grade for general purpose writing. Harder pencils are most often used for drafting purposes, while softer grades are usually preferred by artists.

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Who invented Eraser?

English engineer, Edward Naime is credited with the creation of the first eraser in 1770. Before rubber, breadcrumbs had been used to erase pencil marks. Naime claims he accidentally picked up a piece of rubber instead of his lump of bread and discovered the possibilities, he went on to sell the new rubbing out devices or rubbers.

Charles Marie de la Condamine, a French scientist and explorer, was the first European to bring back the natural substance called "India" rubber. He brought a sample to the Institute de France in Paris in 1736. South American Indian tribes used rubber to making bouncing playing balls and as an adhesive for attaching feathers and other objects to their bodies.

In 1839, Charles Goodyear discovered a way to cure rubber and make it a lasting and useable material. He called his process vulcanization, after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. In 1844, Goodyear patented his process. With the better rubber available, erasers became quite common.

Attaching erasers to pencils :-

The first patent for attaching an eraser to a pencil was issued in 1858 to a man from Philadelphia named Hyman Lipman. This patent was later held to be invalid because it was merely the combination of two things, without a new use.

When was first Sharpener invented:-

At first penknives were used to sharpen pencils. They got their name from the fact that they were first used to shape feather quills used as early pens. In 1847 , Therry des Estwaux first invented the manual pencil sharpener, as we know it.

John Lee Love of Fall River, MA designed the "Love Sharpener." Love's invention was the very simple, portable pencil sharpener that many artists use. The pencil is put into the opening of the sharpener and rotated by hand, and the shavings stay inside the sharpener. Four years earlier, Love created  the "Plasterer's Hawk." This device, which is still used today, is a flat square piece of board made of wood or metal, upon which plaster or mortar was placed and then spread by plasterers or masons.

One source claims that the Hammacher Schlemmer Company of New York offered the world's first electric pencil sharpener designed by Raymond Loewy, sometime in the early 1940s.

First Pencil Factory:-

In 1861, Eberhard Faber built the first pencil factory in the United States in New York City.

Here is a small Quiz on pencils ? – Ready to answer ?

1. The word Pencil is derived from Pencillus which means...

                  a. Little tail    b. Writing   c. Point

2. Which is the largest pencil company in India?

       a. Camlin    b.Emma International   c. Hindustan Pencils

3. Which country was the source of the world's first graphite pencils?

       a. France    b. Germany     c.England

4.  Who established first pencil factory?

 a. Faber-Castell    b.Staedler  c. Eagle Pencil Co.

Answers -

1.The correct answer is Little tail.
Pencil, a derivative of the Latin word pencillus for 'little tail', originally described a small, fine, pointed brush.

2.Hindustan Pencils is the largest pencil manufacturing company in India. Established in 1958, the company manufactures upto 5.25 million pencils, 0.80 million sharpeners, 1.75 million erasers and 0.12 million scales daily. Today its brands 'Apsara' and 'Nataraj' are household names.

3.Keswick in England has the distinction of producing the world's first graphite pencils. The first pencils ever made were manufactured at Keswick following the discovery of graphite in the Seathwaite Valley. The Cumberland Pencil Company manufactures the world famous Derwent Fine Art pencils. These are used by professional and leisure artists Keswick also has the Cumberland Pencil Museum which traces the fascinating history of pencils.

4. Faber-Castell is the world's major manufacturer of wood-cased pencils and operates the largest pencil factory of the world in Sao Carlos, Brazil. Faber-Castell, a German company for writing instruments was founded in 1761 in Nuremberg by Kaspar Faber.