The pencil is increasingly marginalized by technology, we reflect on
its relatively recent origin in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. At least
by the reckoning of one scientist, a single pencil can draw a line 731
miles (1178 kilometers) long:
"The modern pencil was invented in
1795 by Nicholas-Jacques Conte, a scientist serving in the army of
Napoleon Bonaparte. The magic material that was so appropriate for the
purpose was the form of pure carbon that we call graphite. It was first
discovered in Europe, in Bavaria at the start of the fifteenth century;
although the Aztecs had used it as a marker several hundred years
earlier. Initially it was believed to be a form of lead and was called
'plumbago' or black lead (hence the 'plumbers' who mend our lead
water-carrying pipes), a misnomer that still echoes in our talk of
pencil 'leads'. It was called graphite only in 1789, using the Greek
word 'graphein' meaning 'to write'. Pencil is an older word, derived
from the Latin 'pencillus', meaning 'little tail', to describe the small
ink brushes used for writing in the Middle Ages.
 |
| NICHOLAS-JACQUES CONTÉ |
"The
purest deposits of lump graphite were found in Borrowdale near Keswick
[England] in the Lake District in 1564 and spawned quite a smuggling
industry and associated black economy in the area. During the nineteenth
century a major pencil manufacturing industry developed around Keswick
in order to exploit the high quality of the graphite. The first factory
opened in 1832, and the Cumberland Pencil Company has just celebrated
its 175th anniversary; although the local mines have long been closed
and supplies of the graphite used now come from Sri Lanka and other far
away places. Cumberland pencils were those of the highest quality
because
