History of The Pencil
Photo by Pink Sherbert PhotographyToday I thought we could celebrate an amazing little tool that we all use (or have used) at some point in our lives: the pencil. It's portable, lightweight, and believe it or not, an average pencil can draw a line that is 35 miles long and write an average of 45,000 words. Each year, more than 2 billion pencils are used in the United States and more than 14 billion are used around the world, which is enough to circle the globe close to 60 times. Trees are used to make pencils, with an average-sized tree yielding close to 170,000 of these fantastic gadgets.
While we are accustomed to pencils being topped with the all-handy eraser, this mistake-friendly pal did not begin sitting atop this writing tool until about 160 years ago. It is believed that teachers were reluctant at first to use pencils with erasers because it might encourage students to make mistakes, but the ease and innovation of the eraser soon won out.
In 1795, Nicolas Conte, a French chemist developed and patented the initial process used to make pencils. He incorporated a mix of graphite and clay that was fired before being put into a wooden case. The pencils were the shape of a cylinder with a slot in the middle. The square lead was glued into that slot and then another strip of wood filled in the rest of the area.
Mass production of lead pencils began after the Civil War in the United States. There were several patents granted for the machines used to make lead pencils. Dixon patented a wood planing machine for shaping pencils that produced 132 pencils per minute, a speedy feat in those days. The import tariff of 1865 brought with it a big push for the US production of pencils by the leading manufacturers of the day: the Eagle Pencil Company, Eberhard Faber, the Joseph Dixon Company, and the American Lead Pencil Company.
The first mass-produced pencils were not painted, because the manufacturers wanted to show off the high quality of wood casings they produced them within; but by the 1890s, most pencils were painted yellow. This familiar color (which is still common today) came about because the best graphite during the 1800s came from China. The color yellow was synonymous with respect and royalty in China; and because the US pencil companies wanted to find a memorable way of showing people that their pencils contained graphite from China, they used this color to relay the association of the Chinese graphite.
The etymology of the word pencil is very interesting. See this post I did awhile back to learn all about the origin of the word. And for a fun glimpse at the production of pencils, check out this video from How It's Made. Machines like these shown in this episode COMPLETELY amaze me. I am always so in awe of production technology. Pretty cool!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 9:21AM
Reader Comments (5)
Rad stuff Jinxi. I always learn so much from you, love you lots.
very interesting. i always love learning great random stuff like this. keep it up, you are a very talented writer!
I adore your website – nice job!
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I adore your website – nice job!