The 500-year journey rises to the world domination position of a pencil

Not only is the learning tool from early childhood to school, but pencil is also a daily tool of architects, designers, painters, . Simply a graphite gut in a wooden shell, almost anyone who has just started writing a pen, uses a pencil to write the first strokes of life.

So do you know that the device that you have had a 500-year journey to shape how this world turns around? If curious, invite back to the countryside of northern England to hear the impressive story about the history of the pencil .

How has a simple writing tool dominated the world for the past 500 years? Talk about a fallen tree .

Somewhere around the 16th century, a tree at Borrowdale in England fell. Underneath that tree was a magic stone with dark gray lines that looked like some kind of alloy. Local people saw it and thought it was only lead. However, there are no metals here that are pure carbon, more precisely graphite.

The Cumberland Borrowdale region where the English first discovered graphite and closed a graphite block

In the 1500s, chemistry was still in its infancy on its hundreds-year development process. Therefore, local people cannot determine what they see exactly. However, they quickly noticed a very important feature of the material under the trunk: when drawing on paper, the material gives a much more intense image than the lead that was used to write the word. Roman times. Therefore, they used the black lead " black lead" to set this material. Now, the British cut the graphite to each part and fixed it to the head of a stick to write the word. They then wrapped these sticks in paper or wrapped them around the street. This new type of tool is called a pencil - a name derived from Latin pencillum which means a good pen.

It is completely dry, not to worry that the ink spill is like a quill pen, it creates black lines, easy to see, easy to see, and it can be erased.

Before that there was nothing like a pencil. It is completely dry. You don't need to worry about spilling the ink like you would a quill pen. At the same time it can write on black lines, easy to see on paper. And more importantly, it can be erased! Although the eraser is on the top of the pencil that we now see until 1858, it was found to be using bread samples to remove pencil marks.

Although not yet when it comes to what happened more than 5 centuries ago, it is somewhat uncertain if there is no concrete evidence, but it is believed that in the 1600s, a carpenter at Keswick , UK, for the first time proposed the idea of ​​putting graphite into wood. A square piece of wood was sliced ​​along, then each side was grooved to fit a piece of thin graphite into it. Finally all three pieces consist of a piece of graphite sandwiched between two pieces of wood glued together, creating a pen with square or more precise edges than the first wooden pencil in the world.

This is really a big step because wood will fix graphite more firmly than when using paper or wire that needs to be removed in the process of graphite being worn away. With a wooden "pen case" , one can even engrave the pen body and, more importantly, use a sharpened knife to scratch the pencil during use. And also from here, the phrase "pencil sharpening" or " pencil cell" begins to arise.

The oldest pen in the world has been found since the beginning of the 17th century and is currently on display at the castle Faber-Castell, in Nuremberg, Germany.

Soon after it was discovered, the value of graphite began to increase significantly when it was known that it could also be used as a material in the production of cannonballs. At that time, the British government wanted to profit from this and they took control of the graphite mine at Borrowdale and set up a strict monitoring mechanism here to prevent any graphite from being sold. illegal. In 1752, Anh Phu passed the law to consider graphite theft as a felony.

Although graphite is found in many other places in Europe, the exploited graphite in British mines is still hard and black is among the best in the world. Good quality graphite has helped Britain become the world's largest producer of pencil and graphite. The British government then continuously took measures to protect the leading role in graphite supply, including mining six weeks every five years to avoid overexploitation, leading to depletion of resources. This precious resource.

In the late 1700s, lead alloy pens became too difficult to use. Unlike pen engines that are always appreciated based on elegance and durability, pencils have become a regular and basic tool to serve the needs of writing and drawing. Pencil firms start using a "lead" to call pencils and this is also the reason people often mistakenly believe that pencils contain "lead" inside, even though it is not connected. What about metal. In addition, people use the word "plumbago", which is Latin for a plumbum for graphite. This name was very popular in the 1800s, until people began to use the name "graphite" to refer to graphite crystals in graphite. This word has Latin root graphein, meaning "to write".

The birth of modern pencils

The unique position in the field of British pencil supplies began to wobble in the 1790s. The mine at Borrowdale had run out of graphite. In 1793, Britain was at war with France. This was the beginning of Napoleon's wars and perhaps the mediators did not know this would completely change the world map as well as the global balance of power, of course the pen industry. Lead will also change completely from here.

At the beginning of the war, Britain imposed an embargo on France - one of Britain's big pencil customers. Although it seems to have no military influence, in fact, this embargo has a negative effect on the British business sector. Meanwhile, France suddenly lost its supply of pencils and graphite. A year after the war broke out, French marquis Lazare Carnot assigned a scientist and commander of Nicolas-Jacques Conté to find a solution to the shortage of graphite.

Portrait of Nicolas-Jacques Conté - who found a mixture of pencil gut from graphite and clay.

At that time, Conté was developing a number of important things for the military, including a balloon that had taken away an eye from the explosion during the experiment. After receiving the order, Conté put aside the airship project and started researching how to produce pencils. More precisely, his task was to find other materials to replace graphite or a graphite mixture with other substances. It is said that it took only a few days for the inventor to find the answer.

Conté has found two main materials: graphite and clay. He mixed them with water, placed them in a square mold, then placed them in the kiln to harden them. Through the experiment, Conté found that he could adjust the pen density of the pen stroke by changing the amount of clay in the mixture. The more clay the harder the pencil and the lighter the pen strokes when writing on paper. Conversely, the less the clay, the softer the pencil and the darker the pen. To put the pen into the bow, Conté cut a groove along the length of the wooden rod instead of adding it into two parts like the British did. After that, the pen's lead intestine will be stuck inside the groove and another piece of wood will be stuck on the pen body.

Conté's pencil was patented in 1795. While British pure graphite pencils were still very popular, Conté's pencil gradually emerged as an ideal tool for companies to start. Mass production in the mid-1800s. Conté's invention also paved the way for creating pencils with various shades of light to meet the extremely diverse writing or drawing needs. And did you know, until now we still use pencils with a mixture of clay and graphite like Conté's.

A writer goes to business and perfects pencil manufacturing techniques

Thanks to Conté's invention, France began to emerge as a new force in pencil manufacturing. Companies across Europe have heard about Conté's mix but still cannot copy how it can be done. And so they look for alternatives.

Some of the most famous writers, inventors and architects in history have become followers of pencil

While on the other side of the Atlantic, Americans also began to study a mixture of pencil bowel materials by cutting British graphite export policy and many trade problems after the war of 1812. And you know Americans, they try all kinds of ingredients. Typically, the Thoreau family, the birthplace of writers, poets, historians, philosophers, . Henry David Thoreau, used pencil guts from a graphite mixture with bayberry (bayberry) wax and or sperm whale wax, a type of wax taken from whales that was often used to make candles at the time.

And in 1821, the Thoreau family established a pencil company with their name at Concord. Two years later, the father of writer Thoreau took over the business and named John Thoreau & Company. Although their pencils are not of the quality of Conté's pencil, but the pencil and graphite pencil mixture is one of the best pencils in the US at the time. Before his literary career, Henry David Thoreau had a childhood as a pencil with his father and he ran the family business until the 1830s.

A pencil box of J. Thoreau & Company.

As a young man, after graduating from Harvard University, Thoreau accepted a job at a public school and resigned a few weeks later. Then he and his brother opened an English grammar school and during this time he considered perfecting the family's pencil manufacturing techniques as a way to help him kill his free time. According to historians, Thoreau had almost no knowledge of Conté's pencil making technique, but he may have consulted the intellectual encyclopedia at Harvad University and then found it. How to use clay to replace wax to make pencil bowels.

Thoreau crushed graphite into many different sizes to determine how to create a perfect bond with clay. Finally, he found the recipe for pencil bowels with much higher hardness and density than the products his family had ever made. In other words, Thoreau rediscovered what Conté had found 45 years ago but the level of effectiveness of the study was thought to be higher. In this way, the business of John Thoreau & Company grew dramatically in the 1840s.

Henry David Thoreau.

Thoreau then left the business to pursue his literary and philosophical studies, but he still periodically returned to the company when he needed money. Once again, he wanted to improve the family business business by creating new initiatives and he developed machines to help speed up production, including graphite crushers. . At the same time he invented a device that could drill a hole along the pen body to put the graphite core into it.

Thoreau's story not only demonstrates that writers can also participate in the invention, but it also has a significant impact on the pencil industry's growth from the beginning to the mid-1800s. And when the recipe mixes. Conté's has been spread around the world, more and more other pencil firms have emerged, creating a huge competition, and pushing graphite demand to higher levels than ever before. And Thoreaus's company completely stopped producing pencils in 1853 and switched to selling pure graphite that was more profitable.

Million dollar industry

The popularity of the innovative blending formula by Conté is increasingly spreading around the world in the mid to late 1800, coinciding with the rise of machines. Machines can easily create a wooden pen body in a smooth or hexagonal form. Not only big companies but also small companies now buy machines to produce pencils. The graphite industry exploded and according to historians, it became an industry worth millions of dollars at that time.

Faber Castel in Nuremberg, Germany.

German and American companies began to emerge as great forces in the history of pencils. The pencil company AW Faber, now Faber-Castell , has been so famous that many other companies have used the Faber brand to stamp their pencil products to sell better. Faber 's longtime rival in Germany, JS Staedtler, produced more than 2 million pencils each year in the 1870s. In the United States, Joseph Dixon Crucible Company also became one of the leading pencil brands. Best.

In 1827, American inventor Joseph Dixon established a company to develop a metal melting pot. This is called an extremely timely move, meeting the market demand for weapons that were emerging during the US-Mexican war in the 1840s. And why did Dixon mention the pencil article? The reason is simple because the crucibles are made of graphite. In fact, Dixon also has a small business that produces pencils and thanks to huge profits from the weapons segment, after the war, he had enough money to expand pencil production. In 1847, he dedicated a factory in Jersey City to produce pencils. His products were very popular in the 1870s with the slogan of advertising American products for Americans. In 1873, Dixon bought the graphite company American Graphite Company of Ticonderoga to ensure a supply of graphite.

Display of Dixon's pencil products.

In just a decade, Dixon has produced more than 80,000 pencils a day. If a pencil is lost at the end of the working day, all employees in that room will be fired. Managers in the factory always closely monitor all employees. And with the strict production process, Dixon has produced thousands of thousands of yellow and green crayons that until now, it is still a symbol of the pencil industry.

Do you think pencil is a product of modern times? No, you're wrong!

You think the pencil is a modern initiative, created by someone who is tired of having to peel their wooden pencil? This may not be true because, in fact, pencil firms have created "lead-holding tools" centuries ago, at the beginning of the first pencils. These lead-holding tools are made of metal, sometimes using both gold and silver. However, due to the weight being too heavy and bulky, the iron-only pens could not be widely available although it was the most sophisticated mechanical technique now.

In 1915, a Japanese blacksmith, Tokuji Hayakawa, invented the so-called "sharp - edged pencil machine" (Ever-Ready Sharp mechanical pencil) or, more simply, the Eversharp pencil. It was a compact pencil like a normal wooden pencil and inside it was a charcoal lead that lay neatly. Want to push the lead intestine out, we just need to rotate the body of the pen. This design has quickly spread throughout the world. And unexpectedly, H ayakawa was the founder of Sharp Corporation after his pencil success.

A brochure for the Eversharp machine pencil made by The Wahl Company in Chicago.

There is also another invention that has contributed significantly to shaping the pencil we use today. A few centuries before Conté developed his mixture of pencil gut, the British Duke Joseph Priestly, who first discovered oxygen, found that natural rubber resin when rubbed into paper would effectively remove it. The pencil stain is more effective than using bread intestines. Priestly calls his pencil eraser tool "rubber" - the term used to describe the eraser used in the UK.

And later, Hymen Lipman, a Philadelphia-based stationery salesman, became the first person to paste a small piece of rubber into the pencil's tail in 1858. He was granted a patent for this design but by the year 1875, the court ruled against patent validity. The logic here is a pencil and an eraser doesn't need to be attached to each other. Because patents are no longer in effect, the purification of the pen has become a movement in the pencil business in the United States. Most of the pencils made in the US since the 1920s have a small pink or red eraser at the top. (Nowadays eraser is usually made of vinyl). In other parts of the world, there are places to attach to, there are separate places to sell.

Old, young, big, young, new to writing, writing a lot, scholar, . "Writing, writing, writing forever!"

The striped, blue, multicolored pencils, . have become familiar items for each of us.

Today, the striped, red, blue, multicolored pencils have become so familiar to each of us since childhood. And now there is also a pencil classification system. European and Asian countries use characters like H to indicate a hard pen and B to indicate a black color. A 9B pencil is the darkest, pure black, 7B is lighter and similar, 5B is lighter. A 9H pencil is the hardest and therefore the pen strokes are the lightest. Most common pencils are usually HB, meaning hardness and black on average.

In the United States, pencils are often classified based on counting scales. The higher the number, the harder it is and the lighter the writing will be. American No. 2 pencil is equivalent to HB pencil and it is also widely used in the United States by balance. The boldness of HB pen is not so big that it is smudge, and it is hard enough to write without breaking easily. This is also the reason why pencil number 2 or HB becomes the standard when taking the SAT.

Well, we've just finished the 500-year journey of a pencil, a simple but extremely popular writing tool around the world. At first it was merely an accidental discovery under a tree strewn with the ability to trace paper, to find a way to bring it into the house, take it easier, mix it with other things and until Today, pencil is still an indispensable item for many different industries, from a boy writing to famous writers and scientists, the pencil almost follows the table. Our hands are at the end of life.