istorie

Istorie

• acum 5 000 de ani în urmă, în Egiptul antic se foloseau ca unealtă de scris tulpini de bambus, stuf sau papirus în care se turna plumb topit.
• Totuși, primul tip de creion putem spune că era acel stylus roman: o vergea metalică, de obicei de plumb, utilizată pentru a zgâria papirusul (strămoșul hârtiei).
• 1564: În Borrowdale, Anglia, se extrage grafit în cantități industriale.
• 1662: Începe era modernă a creionului: la Nürnberg, Germania începe producția în masă a creioanelor.
• 1795: Nicolas-Jacques Conté pune la punct creionul cu mină de grafit așa cum se prezintă astăzi.
• 1812: Apare prima fabrică americană de creioane.
• 1861: Eberhard Faber își deschide o fabrică de creioane în New York.
• 1922: fondarea firmei Eberhard Faber GmbH prin deschiderea unei fabrici de creioane la Neumarkt, lângă Nürnberg.

• Discovery of graphite deposit

  Some time before 1565 (some sources say as early as 1500), an enormous deposit of graphite was discovered on the approach to Grey Knotts from the hamlet of Seathwaite in Borrowdale parish, Cumbria, England.^[1][2][3] The locals found that it was very useful for marking sheep. This particular deposit of graphite was extremely pure and solid, and it could easily be sawn into sticks. This remains the only large scale deposit of graphite ever found in this solid form.^[4] Chemistry was in its infancy and the substance was thought to be a form of lead. Consequently, it was called plumbago (Latin for "lead ore").^[5][6] The black core of pencils is still referred to as lead, even though it never contained the element lead.^{[citation needed]} In German, the word for pencil is still Bleistift, literally lead stick.

  The value of graphite was soon realised to be enormous, mainly because it could be used to line the moulds for cannonballs, and the mines were taken over by the Crown and guarded. When sufficient stocks of graphite had been accumulated, the mines were flooded to prevent theft until more was required. Graphite had to be smuggled out for use in pencils. Because graphite is soft, it requires some form of case. Graphite sticks were at first wrapped in string or in sheepskin for stability. The news of the usefulness of these early pencils spread far and wide, attracting the attention of artists all over the known world.

  Although deposits of graphite had been found in other parts of the world, they were not of the same purity and quality as the Borrowdale find, and had to be crushed to remove the impurities, leaving only graphite powder.^{[citation needed]} England continued to enjoy a monopoly on the production of pencils until a method of reconstituting the graphite powder was found. The distinctively square English pencils continued to be made with sticks cut from natural duck graphite into the 1860s. The town of Keswick, near the original findings of block graphite still manufactures pencils, the factory also being the location of the Cumberland pencil museum.^[7]

  The first attempt to manufacture graphite sticks from powdered graphite was in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1662. It used a mixture of graphite, sulphur, and antimony.

  Residual graphite from a pencil stick is not poisonous, and graphite is harmless if consumed.^[8]

  Wood holders added

  The Italians first thought of wooden holders. An Italian couple, in particular, named Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti, were believed^{[who?][when?]} to be the ones to create the first blueprints for the modern carpentry pencil for the purpose of marking their carpentry pieces; however, their version was instead a flat, oval, more compact type of pencil. They did this at first by hollowing out a stick of juniper wood. Shortly thereafter, a superior technique was discovered: two wooden halves were carved, a graphite stick inserted, and the two halves then glued together—essentially the same method in use to this day.^[9]

  English and German pencils were not available to the French during the Napoleonic Wars; France, under naval blockade imposed by Great Britain, was unable to import the pure graphite sticks from the British Grey Knotts mines – the only known source in the world for solid graphite. France was also unable to import the inferior German graphite pencil substitute. It took the efforts of an officer in Napoleon's army to change this. In 1795, Nicholas Jacques Conté discovered a method of mixing powdered graphite with clay and forming the mixture into rods that were then fired in a kiln. By varying the ratio of graphite to clay, the hardness of the graphite rod could also be varied. This method of manufacture, which had been earlier discovered by the Austrian Joseph Hardtmuth of Koh-I-Noor in 1790, remains in use.^{[citation needed]}

  In England, pencils continued to be made from whole sawn graphite. Henry Bessemer's first successful invention (1838) was a method of compressing graphite powder into solid graphite thus allowing the waste from sawing to be reused.^[10]

  

  

  Pencil manufacturing. The top sequence shows the old method that required pieces of graphite to be cut to size; the lower sequence is the new, current method using rods of graphite and clay

  American colonists imported pencils from Europe until after the American Revolution. Benjamin Franklin advertised pencils for sale in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1729, and George Washington used a three-inch pencil when he surveyed the Ohio Territory in 1762.^{[citation needed]} It is said^{[by whom?]} that William Munroe, a cabinetmaker in Concord, Massachusetts, made the first American wood pencils in 1812. This was not the only pencil-making occurring in Concord. According to Henry Petroski, transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau discovered how to make a good pencil out of inferior graphite using clay as the binder; this invention was prompted by his father's pencil factory in Concord, which employed graphite found in New Hampshire in 1821 by Charles Dunbar.

  Munroe's method of making pencils was painstakingly slow, and in the neighbouring town of Acton, a pencil mill owner named Ebenezer Wood set out to automate the process at his own pencil mill located at Nashoba Brook along the old Davis Road. He used the first circular saw in pencil production. He constructed the first of the hexagon- and octagon-shaped wooden casings that we have today. Ebenezer did not patent his invention and shared his techniques with whomever asked. One of those was Eberhard Faber of New York, who became the leader in pencil production.^[11]

  Joseph Dixon, an inventor and entrepreneur involved with the Tantiusques granite mine in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, developed a means to mass produce pencils. By 1870, The Joseph Dixon Crucible Company was the world’s largest dealer and consumer of graphite and later became the contemporary Dixon Ticonderoga pencil and art supplies company.^[12][13]

  By the end of the 19th century over 240,000 pencils were used each day in the United States alone. The favoured timber for pencils was Red Cedar as it was aromatic and did not splinter when sharpened. In the early 20th century supplies of Red Cedar were dwindling so that pencil manufacturers were forced to recycle the wood from cedar fences and barns to maintain supply. Britain went as far as declaring the use of pencil sharpeners illegal to discourage unnecessary sharpening.^{[citation needed]} It was soon discovered that Incense cedar, when dyed and perfumed to resemble Red Cedar, was a suitable alternative and most pencils today are made from this timber which is grown in managed forests. Over 14 billion pencils are manufactured worldwide annually.^[14]

  Eraser attached

  

  

  Drawing of pencil with an attached eraser from its patent application

  On 30 March 1858, Hymen Lipman received the first patent for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil.^[15] In 1862 Lipman sold his patent to Joseph Reckendorfer for $100,000, who went to sue the pencil manufacturer Faber-Castell for infringement.^[16] In 1875, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Reckendorfer declaring the patent invalid.^[17]