Writing instruments have been known since ancient times, just at the time when people began to need to compose documents, conduct correspondence, or simply record their thoughts.

The ancient Egyptians can be considered the creators of the ancestor of the fountain pen - in the burial of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, a pointed copper tube was discovered, which was filled with a dark-colored liquid - ink. They slowly flowed down the fibers of the stem and accumulated at the pointed end of the tube. When writing with pressure, a clear, thin line remained on the papyrus.

The Romans used a tin stylus for drawing on papyrus and parchment scrolls, and writing on wax tablets.

Beginning in the 13th century, artists used thin silver wire for drawing, which was soldered to a pen or stored in a case. This type of pencil was called a “silver pencil.” This tool required high level skill, since it is impossible to erase what he wrote. His other characteristic feature was that over time, the gray strokes made with a silver pencil turned brown. Such tools were used by such graphic masters as Dürer, Van Eyck and Botticelli.

The history of the pencil begins in the 14th century. The so-called “Italian pencil” is known, which appeared at this time. It was a rod of clayey black shale.

Then they began to make it from burnt bone powder, held together with vegetable glue. This tool allowed you to create an intense and rich line. Interestingly, artists even now sometimes use silver, lead and Italian pencils when they need to achieve a certain effect.

Charcoal continued to be used, as in ancient times, but no longer in the form of firebrands, but, for example, by specially processing willow sticks in a pot sealed with clay in an oven.

The appearance of the word “pencil” is most likely associated with prototypes. It goes back to the Turkic karadas - “black stone” and the Turkish karatas - “black slate”. Linguists also associate the word pencil with it - baby, toddler, small man, indicating the closeness of its meaning to the German word “stift” - pencil toddler.

Graphite pencils have been known since the 16th century. English shepherds from the Cumberland area discovered a dark mass in the ground, which they used to mark sheep. Initially, due to its color similar to that of lead, the deposit was mistaken for deposits of this mineral, used for casting bullets. But, having determined the unsuitability of the new material for these purposes, they began to make thin sticks with pointed ends from it and used them for drawing. Such sticks were soft, stained hands and were suitable for drawing, but not for writing.

In the 17th century, graphite was usually sold on the streets. Buyers, mostly artists, sandwiched these graphite sticks between pieces of wood or twigs and wrapped them in paper or tied them with string.

The so-called “Paris pencil” (“sauce”) was made from a mixture of white clay and black soot. It turned out to be good because it gives a black mark on the paper and scratches it less. Graphic artists still use it to this day. In France, in the 15th century, pastel was invented by adding pigments and fats to chalk. They used gum arabic or fig tree juice, for example. Leonardo da Vinci is credited with the discovery of sanguine - “red chalk”. This is natural kaolin, colored with iron oxides.

The first document mentioning a wooden pencil dates back to 1683. In Germany, the production of graphite pencils began in Nuremberg. The Germans came up with the idea of ​​mixing graphite powder with sulfur and glue, thus obtaining a rod that was not the most High Quality, but at a lower price. To hide this, pencil manufacturers resorted to various tricks. Pieces of pure graphite were inserted into the wooden body of the pencil at the beginning and at the end, and in the middle there was a low-quality artificial rod. Sometimes the inside of the pencil was completely empty. It is clear that the so-called “Nuremberg product” did not enjoy a good reputation.

The modern pencil was invented in 1794 by the talented French scientist and inventor Nicolas Jacques Conte. At the end of the 18th century, the English Parliament introduced the strictest ban for the removal of precious graphite from Cumberland. Violation of this resolution was punished very strictly, up to death penalty. But, despite this, graphite continued to be smuggled into continental Europe, which led to a sharp increase in its price.

On instructions from the French Convention, Conte developed a recipe for mixing graphite with clay and producing high-quality rods from these materials. By processing at elevated temperatures, high strength was achieved; however, even more important was the fact that changing the proportion of the mixture made it possible to make rods of different hardness, which served as the basis for the modern classification of pencils by hardness (T, M, TM or in the English version: H - hard, B - soft, HB - medium hard). The numbers before the letters indicate further degrees of softness or hardness. This depends on the percentage of graphite in the mixture, which also affects the color of the lead (lead) - the more graphite, the darker and softer the pencil lead.

At the end of the 18th century, the Czech manufacturer J. Hartmut, who produced laboratory glassware, combined clay and graphite, laying the foundation for the pencil production of the famous “KOH-I-NOOR”.

Modern leads use polymers, which make it possible to achieve the desired combination of strength and elasticity, making it possible to produce very thin leads for mechanical pencils (up to 0.3 mm).

He proposed the familiar hexagonal shape of the pencil body in late XIX century Count Lothar von Faber-Castell, noticing that round pencils often rolled off inclined writing surfaces.

In Russia, rich in graphite and timber, Mikhail Lomonosov, with the help of the residents of one village in the Arkhangelsk province, launched the production of pencils in a wooden shell and introduced the concept of “gross” into world use - a dozen dozen. Gross is the daily norm for the production of pencils by one master and one apprentice. Until now, all over the world, “gross” is a unit of measurement for the number of pencils.

With a graphite rod mounted in a wooden shell, the appearance and principle of operation of the pencil has not changed for more than two hundred years. Production is being improved, quality is being honed, the number of pencils produced is becoming astronomical, but the idea of ​​rubbing a layered coloring substance against a rough surface remains surprisingly viable.

The invention of a pencil in a wooden frame, due to its ease of use, as well as the comparative simplicity and low cost of their production, facilitated the process of consolidating and disseminating information. To appreciate the benefits of this innovation, it is necessary to remember that writing for many centuries was associated with such attributes as goose and, later, metal quills, ink or ink. The man writing was chained to the table. The advent of the pencil made it possible to take notes on the go or during work, when it was necessary to instantly record something. It is not for nothing that the phraseological phrase “take on a pencil” has become firmly entrenched in our language.

2/3 of the material that makes up a simple pencil goes to waste when sharpening it. This prompted the American Alonzo Townsend Cross, a pioneer of modern writing instruments, to create a metal pencil in 1869. The graphite rod was placed in a metal tube and could be extended to the appropriate length as needed.

This humble beginning influenced the development of a whole group of products that are used everywhere today. The simplest design is a mechanical pencil with a 2mm lead, where the rod is held by metal clamps (collets) - a collet pencil. The collets open when the button on the end of the pencil is pressed, which leads to extension to a length adjustable by the owner of the pencil.

On September 15, 1912, 19-year-old Tokuji Hayakawa opened a small metal haberdashery workshop in the center of Tokyo. Then he managed to invent an ever-sharp pencil. Thus began the career of the founder of Sharp Corporation, one of the leading electronics companies.

It would seem that inventing a pencil is like reinventing a wheel. But Hayakawa managed to make something completely new out of this simple and familiar object. He came up with an original mechanism that made it possible to keep the pencil point in working condition at all times, and placed it in a metal case. The lead moved outward due to the rotation of the case. “Hayakawa's mechanical pencil” - under this name he patented the invention - was devoid of the disadvantages of its predecessor, which was made of celluloid and was terribly inconvenient, ugly and impractical.

In 1915, Hayakawa released his pencils for sale. They sold poorly: the metal case was cold on the fingers and did not look good with the kimono. Hayakawa stubbornly continued to work at the warehouse until he received a large order from a trading company from the port city of Yokohama. It turned out that in Europe and the USA the “Hayakawa pencil” gained popularity. Large Japanese traders quickly recognized the export potential of the new product and began buying pencils directly from the factory. It was loaded to capacity, and the traders demanded more and more. Then Hayakawa created another company to produce pencils, and he himself continued to work on their design. In 1916, he developed a lead head, and the mechanical pencil took on the appearance it retains to this day. The product received a new name - “ever-ready-sharp pencil”. This is where the name Sharp Corporation originates.

It is worth returning once again to the mention of the N.-J. Comte company. At the end of the 20th century, it released Conte Evolution, a wood-free pencil that is produced on a single production line in just one minute or less. The recipe is secret. What is known is that it is made from synthetic rubber, the solution of which is stretched into a spaghetti shape, cut into sections, sharpened at one end, trimmed at the other (to which an eraser can be added) and coated with paint.

Modern mechanical pencils are more advanced. Each time you press the button, a small section of lead is automatically fed. Such pencils do not need to be sharpened, they are equipped with a built-in eraser (usually under the lead feed button) and have different fixed line thicknesses (0.3mm, 0.5mm, 0.7mm, 0.9mm, 1mm).

Statistics lovers have calculated that with one ordinary wooden pencil you can draw a line 56 km long or write more than 40 thousand words. But Steinbeck, they say, could write up to 60 pencils in one day. And Hemingway also wrote only with wooden pencils.

There is another curious fact about the modern advantages of such a seemingly simple tool as a pencil. The US Space Agency (NASA) spent more than a year developing a fountain pen for writing in space (under a project that cost $3.5 million), and Soviet cosmonauts used trouble-free pencils.

The name “pencil” itself came from the east and translated means “black stone” or “black slate”. It is believed that the history of the creation of a pencil began in the 14th century, when the “Italian pencil” appeared, which was a clay black shale rod wrapped in leather. Later, slate was replaced by burnt bone powder mixed with vegetable glue. The lines drawn with this pencil were rich in color.

But the ancestors of the pencil are considered to be lead-zinc and silver sticks, consisting of a piece of wire, which was sometimes soldered to the handle; they were called “silver pencils.” It was difficult to write with such instruments, since it was impossible to correct what had already been done, and the lines were not particularly clear.

Since the 16th century, there have been changes in the history of the pencil; it was then that graphite began to be used for record-keeping. Behind a short time it became so popular that European deposits of “black chalk” were mined very quickly. This continued until the discovery of a graphite deposit in Cumberland (England). Then the monarch issued a decree in which it was forbidden to mine “black chalk” for more than one and a half months a year and export it abroad. Therefore, all the graphite of that time in Europe was of smuggled English origin, and its prices skyrocketed. At the same time, the French invented the “Parisian pencil,” consisting of black soot and light clay, which was particularly soft. At first, graphite was used in the form of sticks only for drawing, and with the advent of wrapping sticks, it was also used for writing. Conrad Gesner's 1565 treatise on minerals contains the first description of a graphite pencil embedded in wood.

The first mass production of wooden pencils was organized in Germany. Nuremberg manufacturers began to use a mixture of graphite, sulfur and glue. The quality of such pencils was worse than those made from pure graphite, but the price was reduced significantly. This was also facilitated by the heterogeneity of the composition of the rod, and sometimes it was completely absent in the middle.

The history of the pencil underwent dramatic changes at the end of the 18th century, when the French inventor Nicolas Jacques Comte proposed using a mixture that, in addition to graphite, included soot, clay, starch and water for the production of pencil leads. After combining the components, they had to be fired. At the same time, changing the proportions of clay and graphite included in the composition made it possible to obtain leads of different hardness. With an increase in graphite, the rod became softer and darker, and with an increase in the amount of clay, it became harder and lighter. Just half a century later, there were almost twenty ways to make graphite-based black rods. For example, now there are twenty-one of them.

Almost simultaneously with Conte, the Austrian Joseph Hardmuth invented his pencil from a mixture of clay and graphite. He had his own factory for the production of ceramic ware, where crucibles from this mixture were used. In Russia, M.V. had a hand in the history of the creation of pencils. Lomonosov, it was he who organized the production of wooden pencils in the Arkhangelsk province. He also came up with a daily norm for one master, equal to 144 pieces and called gross, which is still used today all over the world.

In 1869, American A.T. Cross created the first mechanical pencil by placing a graphite rod in a metal tube and creating a device to extend it.

The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by many discoveries in the field of creating pencils. Thus, in Russia in 1913, Gindelman patented his mechanical pencil, the lead of which moved with the help of a nut in a metal channel. And three years later, the Japanese Hayakawa made a mechanical pencil as we know it now.

During the history of the pencil's existence, its shell was constantly improved. So that it does not roll off the table, its shape was made hexagonal. Then an eraser was placed at the top end. After the invention of plastic, a worthy replacement for wood was found. And the creation of a mechanical pencil in a metal shell completed its appearance.

Pencil - everyone's favorite drawing tool has been known since the very beginning. early childhood. We all use colored and “simple” pencils in Everyday life and we don’t think about the “age” of this invention of mankind. We invite you to learn all the ins and outs about pencils, the history of pencils, the origin of the name and their evolution.

Historical facts about pencils (Caran d’Ache)

Did you know that:

• In the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, more precisely from 1858 to 1909, the famous cartoonist E. Poiret lived, born in Russia and later moved to France. Emmanuel signed his works with the pseudonym Caran d'Ache (Caran d'Ache), in the French manner. This word “pencil”, the pseudonym of Emmanuel Poiret, was firmly entrenched in the consciousness of the entire civilized world and was associated with drawings.
• Later, in Geneva, in 1924, a factory producing writing instruments and stationery accessories was opened, choosing the Caran d’Ache brand for itself.
• A letter written with a “simple” pencil weighs approximately 0.000 33 grams.
• One medium-hard pencil can write 45,000 words.
• One medium-hard pencil is enough to draw a line 55,000 meters long.

Pencil - etymology of the word

Historians believe that the first pencils were sticks made of lead-zinc alloy; wealthy citizens used sticks made of silver. Wire was made from metal and a metal or wooden handle was attached to a short piece. These ancestors of the modern pencil were not very convenient for writing, as they had a sensitive weight, the line was fuzzy and uneven, and it was impossible to correct what was written.

Real story for everyone famous pencils, in our understanding, began around the beginning of the 14th century. Italy is considered the birthplace of the pencil. People made the rod from soft clay and black slate, and wrapped it in thin leather. In historical circles, this invention of mankind is called the “Italian pencil”. Over time, pencil leads and pencil leads were made from burnt animal bones with the addition of plant adhesives. The line drawn with the “Italian pencil” was clear and bright.

The word "PENCIL" has eastern origin, from the Turkic karadaş - (kara), literally black and daş (dash) - stone, slate. Literally - black slate or black stone.

History of the pencil

Humanity, trying to capture and perpetuate what it saw, has always drawn. From school, everyone remembers prehistoric rock paintings. Historians say that humanity began to use something like pencils around the 13th century AD. This was established by studying sketches of paintings of those times and with the help of modern technologies, by layer-by-layer viewing of paintings by masters of those years. A “silver pencil” or “lead pencil” was used. Each of these pencils had its own noticeable shortcomings. Working with a “silver pencil” required high skill and “ a steady hand", because it is no longer possible to correct or erase what has been drawn. In addition, over time, the silver oxidized, and the gray strokes acquired a dark yellow or brown tint. The “lead pencil” drew clearer, but at the same time lighter lines. Artists more often used lead tools.

Later, the “Italian Pencil” appeared, which we talked about above.

It is interesting that even today artists use “lead”, “silver” and “Italian” pencils to achieve the desired effect when drawing.

The graphite pencils we are familiar with appeared in the 16th century. The material for their manufacture was suggested by nature itself. A severe storm occurred in the English Cumberland, many buildings were destroyed and trees were felled. Under the trees, the shepherds discovered a species unknown to them, almost black and with a metallic sheen. At first they thought it was coal, but it didn’t burn. Then they thought it was lead, but the rock did not melt and was clearly lighter than lead. Many more tests were carried out with the graphite discovered by the shepherds, but only one of its qualities was useful: it left a clear, clearly visible mark when drawing with it. Therefore, shepherds marked their sheep with graphite. People began to draw with pieces of graphite, and later, after breaking off thin long chips, they used it for drawing. I couldn't write with graphite. It was very soft for this purpose, it crumbled, stained your hands and broke if pressed too hard. So in the 17th century, graphite was sold in shops. Drawers on the streets, for their own convenience, clamped a piece of graphite between two sticks and wrapped the structure with threads or leather tape.

Mention of the first pencils with a wooden body was found in documents dating back to 1683.

In 1719, the first production of pencils with a graphite rod was opened in Stein (Bavaria, Germany). Of course, the composition of the stylus was different from the modern one. Graphite chips were mixed with sulfur and secured with glue. Due to these manipulations, the cost of the stylus was reduced. The quality was low, but the pencil was not expensive.

And in 1761, carpenter K. Faber began producing pencils. Kaspar came to live in Stein in 1758. Later, Caspar Faber founded the world famous company Faber-Castell (Faber-Castell). Until January 21, 2016, Faber-Castell was led by a direct descendant of Caspar Faber, Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell (1941-21.01.2016).

Science intervened in the evolution of the pencil. For the production of pencils, English graphite, of course from English Cumberland, was considered the best and only suitable. But England limited the export of graphite at the end of the 13th century, since it was used in military affairs and had a strategic purpose. Graphite was added to crucibles in metallurgical production. A crucible is a vessel for heating, firing and melting, used in metallurgy for casting, the word comes from the German “tiegel” - pot. As a result, the cost of graphite in Europe has risen sharply.

In 1789, Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele (December 9, 1742 – May 21, 1786) proved that graphite was a type of carbon.

The name graphite was proposed by the German geologist Abraham Werner in 1789. The word “graphite” comes from the Greek “grapho” - I write. Before this, graphite was called “black lead” from the English “black lead”, “carbide iron” or “silver lead”.

In 1790, Joseph Hardmuth, a master from Vienna, experimentally obtained modern version graphite rod. He made a mixture of graphite flour, clay and water, and fired this mixture in a kiln. By changing the content of clay and graphite, Hardmuth obtained materials of varying hardness. In the same year, Joseph opens a pencil factory called Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth. The name of the enterprise “Koh-i-Noor” (Koh-i-Noor) is translated from Persian as “Mountain of Light”; this is the name of one of the famous diamonds. The business becomes a family business. And in 1889, Joseph Hardmuth’s grandson Friedrich von Hardmuth already knew how to produce pencils of seventeen types of hardness.

In parallel with the research of J. Hardmoud, Nicolas Jacques Conte, an inventor and scientist from France, in 1795 obtained a graphite rod of the same content and technology using graphite dust. We can safely say that both inventors, Hartmud and Conte, are the “parents” of the modern pencil.

The technology for the production of graphite pencil leads by Joseph Hardmood and Nicolas Jacques Conte became widespread throughout Europe, which led to the opening in the mid-19th century of world-famous stationery factories such as Faber-Castell, Koh- i-Noor Hardtmuth", "Staedtler", "Lyra" and "Schwan-Stabilo".

But the usual hexagonal pencil shape was proposed by Count Lothar von Faber-Castell in 1851, noting that cylindrical pencils rolled off tables. Today this is the most common form of pencils.

Today, instead of clay, modern polymers are used to produce leads, which make it possible to achieve not only different degrees of hardness of pencils, but also elasticity, which reduces the fragility of leads. Many people have probably noticed that after a pencil falls on the floor, the lead does not always break off or crumble inside the case. Also modern technologies allow the production of the thinnest leads for mechanical pencils. Accepted lead thickness standards for mechanical pencils are 0.9 mm, 0.7 mm, 0.5 mm and 0.3 mm.

Mechanical pencils appeared in 1869 thanks to the American Alonzo Townsend Cross. He noticed that when sharpening a pencil, most of it is ground off, about two-thirds. Cross's idea was that the lead was placed in a metal tube and extended as needed to the desired length. The first mechanical pencils were primitive, but despite this they lasted quite a long time. The one who remembers Soviet time, knows what domestically produced mechanical pencils are. These are exactly what Cross invented. A fairly thick lead, 2 mm thick, was held on the writing end of the pencil with clamps and collets. When you press the button, the collets move apart and the lead extends to the desired length. Often the length of the lead had to be adjusted manually by holding the lead with your fingers. The short stylus was not held by the collets, swayed and fell out.

The modern mechanism is more advanced. The lead in mechanical pencils is held not by collets, but by the holder itself, and is pulled out using a pusher. When you press the button, the stylus extends a short distance. The advantage of mechanical pencils is the absence of waste and sharpening, since the leads are already quite thin.

The invention of mechanical pencils gave rise to new group stationery.

Pencil production process

To produce leads, the following are used: graphite, kaolin clay or polymers, starch (for pencils), cellulose (for colored pencils), oil (coconut or sunflower), wax, paraffin, stearin or fats.

For the production of the body the following is used:

• low quality - poplar, alder;
• average quality - linden;
• high quality - cedar, pine, jelutong.

Various adhesives are used to secure the body and secure the lead. And body paints.

Therefore, the production of pencils is not as simple as it seems when looking at the pencil itself; in addition, production depends on the quality of materials and suppliers of raw materials.

The history of the origin of the fountain pen.

The evolution and types of modern fountain pens.

Types of modern pencils

Since childhood, we are accustomed to dividing pencils into simple and colored. There is probably no need to emphasize the difference. And so everyone knows perfectly well that they draw with colored pencils, and write, draw and mark with simple pencils. Colored pencils tend to have a soft lead density to make the lines brighter.

Due to the hardness of the lead, simple pencils draw in different shades, from almost black to pale gray.

We described mechanical pencils in sufficient detail above, so we will not repeat them.

The main difference between pencils is hardness.

The hardness of a pencil is always indicated on its body, with the exception of mechanical ones. The hardness of leads for mechanical pencils and their thickness can be found on the box in which they are sold.

Hardness is indicated by letters: T - hard, M - soft. The average and most commonly used hardness of pencils is TM - hard-soft. You also need to know that each manufacturer uses different components, and the tone of the line in the same hardness may be different.

Albina Borodina

My class included a presentation on the origins of the pencil. A film about how pencils are made. And the opening of a pencil museum in the group.

Target

: Introduce children to the history of the appearance and production of pencils.

Expanding children's horizons about the world of surrounding objects.

Expand active and passive lexicon children.

Progress of the lesson

Vos-l

: Guys, today I will tell a story about the appearance of one simple object, and which one will you tell me now after guessing the riddle: Doesn’t look like a man,

But he has a heart

And work all year round

He gives his heart.

He writes when dictated,

He both draws and draws.

And this evening

He will color the album for me.

Children:

Pencil.

Vos-l:

That's right, a pencil.

Text for slides.

What did people draw with before, when they didn’t have a simple pencil? They drew with charcoal. They took a burnt twig from the fire and drew.

A lot of time passed, the coal was replaced with a lead stick, which, for convenience, was placed in a leather tube.

This went on for a very long time until the 16th century, until a new pencil base was found - the lead. The mineral stylus was first discovered by English shepherds; they noticed that when sheep rub against stones they turn black. Convinced that this mineral was not suitable for making bullets and weapons, people began to make thin, pointed sticks from it, although they were only suitable for drawing and not for writing, as they made their hands very dirty.

Since graphite is very soft, they began to add clay to it. This made the graphite rod harder and stronger. The more clay, the harder the pencil.

That's why there are pencils different types: hard, medium and soft.

But graphite also gets very dirty, so it has “clothes.” She became wooden. It turns out that not every tree is suitable for making a pencil body.

You need wood that is easy to plan and cut, but it should not become shaggy. Siberian cedar turned out to be ideal for this purpose.

At that time, pencils were made by hand. A mixture of graphite, clay, fat, soot and glue diluted with water was poured into the hole in wooden stick and evaporated in a special way. One pencil took about five days to make, and it was very expensive.

In Russia, pencil production was organized by Mikhail Lomonosov in the Arkhangelsk province.

There are just so many pencils. There are pencils: round, hexagonal, octagonal, flat, triangular. There are pencils with brushes and pencils with erasers. There is a pencil with a magnifying glass at the end, pencils with bells. The bell rings, and writing becomes more interesting. There are pencils with calendars, with the alphabet, with road signs. They also produce scented pencils that smell delicious when you write with them.

Pencils have served people faithfully and reliably for many years. Scuba divers take them with them. Astronauts also use a pencil to take notes. In the North, where there is always severe frost, the paste in the pens can freeze, but the pencil does not.

Now let’s remember what people used to draw.

(consolidating what you see)

Physical education minute

The pencil stretched, bent once, bent twice.

I spread my arms to the sides, but couldn’t find the sharpener.

To get the sharpener, we need to stand on our toes.

film about the production of a pencil)

Opening of the museum.

Who is who in the world of discoveries and inventions Sitnikov Vitaly Pavlovich

Who invented the pencil?

Who invented the pencil?

Modern pencils are no more than 200 years old. About 500 years ago, graphite was discovered in the mines of Cumberland, England. It is believed that graphite pencils also began to be produced at the same time.

IN German city Nuremberg famous family Faber began making pencils using graphite powder in 1760, but not entirely successfully. Finally, in 1795, a certain Comte invented pencils made from a mixture of graphite and certain types of clay and fired in a kiln. This technology is still used today.

“Plain” pencils are made of graphite, which leaves a dark mark on the paper.

When making pencils, dry graphite powder is mixed with clay and water. The more clay, the harder the lead; the more graphite, the softer. Once the mixture is formed into a dough-like paste, it is passed through a molding press, producing thin sticky ropes. They are straightened, cut to size, dried and sent to the kiln for firing. Wooden blanks from cedar or pine are cut in half lengthwise and a groove is cut out for the stylus. Both halves with the lead are then glued together. The boards are cut into pencils, their outer side is polished.

Today, more than 300 types of pencils are produced for various types activities. Can be purchased simple pencils of varying hardness or order pencils in 72 colors! There are pencils for writing on glass, fabric, cellophane, plastic and film. There are pencils used in construction that will leave marks on surfaces exposed to air for several years!

It turns out that the pencil is perhaps the most ancient writing medium in the world. In any case, they wrote with pencils back in those times about which we are talking: “This was before our era.” More precisely, the first evidence that pencils were already used in writing dates back to 400 BC. However, later the secret of their manufacture was, unfortunately, lost. And the pencils we write with now were invented only in early XVI centuries already AD. They even say that some pencils were made from pure gold, and they, of course, cost a lot of money. But pencils with a graphite lead, which is familiar to us now, cost a little less, because the graphite from which pencil leads were made was a rare material at that time and was very highly valued. A little later, in the middle of the 16th century, a graphite deposit was discovered in Great Britain, but to prevent its reserves from quickly drying up, graphite was mined there only for 6 weeks a year.

In Russia, pencils were first brought from abroad, and only rich people could use them; the poor could not afford them. You probably already know that they used to write more in Russia goose feathers. Finally, in 1842, the first factory for the production of pencils appeared in Russia, but there were still not enough of them for everyone. And only in our century in the USSR they began to produce so many pencils: simple black, colored and chemical that they began to be exported from us abroad.

Eyebrow pencil Used to tint eyebrows and give them the desired shape. Often the shape of the eyebrows gives the face a particular expression. So, even, straight, brightly defined eyebrows make him look more strict, while rounded and slightly raised eyebrows make him look naive and kind. To those who