I have been with you for many years, registering your business, expressing your feelings and emotions and planning your future activities. But what do you know about me? When and where did I come from?
The authorities state different dates and places. But without being dogmatic, I will give a brief summary of my training. My name is "pencil" which comes from the Latin word "penicillus", which means "brush", and at first my ancestors were fine brushes, far from my current form. "Graffiti" (from the Greek graph "to write") was later discovered in Bavaria. That's what makes my heart, wrapped in wood. Graphite was once known as "plumbago" ("behaves like lead") and is still called "pencil" to this day, even though it does not contain lead. Although graphite has been known for some time, it was not until 1564 AD. This high purity graphite was discovered in solid form in Borrowdale, England. At that moment, I began to develop.
The story goes that during a particularly strong storm, a giant tree pulled up and a farmer found a substance in the roots that could be used to mark and would not be washed. Later, the Borrowdale Mine was founded. The graphite was cut into sticks and sold as a writing instrument. The biggest downside was the mess I made with the author's hand and everything I came in contact with. Several developments followed,the first was to roll, cut or wrap myself with string or replica material when my tip was worn, just as some of my friends' paper-wrapped pens can roll up when I use the pen.
Another advance was to wrap myself in a metal tube or bracket and push the rod through the tube so that only the tip of my graphite was exposed, as my cousin does with the throne today. The most common pen, like me, a graphite rod covered with wood, was first made around 1660 in Nuremberg, Bavaria (now Nuremberg, Germany). Around 1790-1795, at least two different people developed methods for grinding graphite with clay, including Josef Hardtmuth from Vienna and Nicolas Jacques Conte from France. His method resulted in a more consistent and elegant pencil that is still basically used.
Let me introduce you to some of my modern relatives: the guide pin and the pull pin. They come in different shapes and sizes and are made of plastic or metal. Inside there is a mechanism where the line can be held and passed through a small hole at the end, if needed. In some cases this is accomplished with a wire which advances the guide as the pen cap rotates. With the docking pins, a button is pressed on the back of the pin, small jaws grab the lead from the inside, push it forward and lock it. Typically, lead produced for electric pens has a diameter much smaller than that used in conventional pens, only 0.91 to 1.17 millimeters (0.036 to 0.046 inches) and between two and a half to four inches. in diameter, in similar degrees of hardness, but not so extensive. Making my heart With modern manufacturing processes, graphite and clay are ground to a doughy consistency with water, which is then extruded through a small hole in a tungsten carbide nozzle.
The finished graphite is then cut to lengths of about 7 inches. These blows are dried and baked in an oven between 1038-1093 degrees Celsius (1900-2000 degrees Fahrenheit) and finally impregnated with a wax or fatty acid lubricant to make my writing softer. The real advantage of the above method over the use of natural graphite is that the consistency of the graphite can be controlled and its hardness ranges from soft grade 6B to HB and F to very hard grades 9H. varies the amount of clay. added to the mixture. The more clay, the harder the graphite. Soft "yes" notes are mainly used for illustrations, sketches and the like. Because they are smooth, derivatives have a rounded point rather than a sharp point and allow the artist to blend and blend linework for contour and depth.
The harder "H" class is used in engineering and architectural drawings. The harder guide maintains a sharp point so that very fine and precise lines can be drawn. The intermediate range of classes HB and F is intended for general use and combines hard and soft qualities. In addition, many special graphite pencils have been developed, eg. B. a pencil too thin to fit on the backs of notebooks or diaries, and a carpenter's pencil with its hard, rectangular "graphite" for drawing on rough wood. Encapsulate my heart So far we've only talked about a part of me, my heart, the lead, but the wood around me is so important. The wood should be smooth enough to sand, strong enough to hold the brittle wire at the end, and strong enough not to bend or bend. Red cedar meets all of these requirements and has a rich, natural color and a pleasant aroma when chopped. Even today, it is considered the best for making pencils.
However, the scarcity of this wood made it necessary to use other varieties. The wood is first sanded into planks about six inches long and two to three inches wide. Six semi-circular grooves are then made along one side to receive the "lead". Then two of these strips are glued together with "lead" in the grooves. When the glue hardens, they are cut into shapes, working first on one side with six half dowels. The other side is then treated the same, leaving six separate dowels which are now cut to exact length. Then the painting follows. When it comes to some of my closest friends, that can mean up to ten coats of paint.
I'm almost ready to leave the factory, but first I need to have my name, ID, and class printed on my page. From the printer, I make a quick jump to the automatic shredder, visit the inspector for a final OK, and go to the packer. I am now ready for distribution. One hundred and twenty-five different operations have been used to make me who I am, your pencil. Yes, I have been there for a long time. The next time you receive me, remember, "Better to have a servant like me than a bad memory."