The history of pencils can be traced back to pre-historic times when chalky rocks and charred sticks were used to draw on surfaces as varied as animal hides and cave walls.
Then, graphite sticks wrapped in string were used for writing purposes. Later, the graphite was inserted into hollowed-out wooden sticks and, thus, the wood-cased pencil was born. Even in our increasingly high-tech world, each year roughly 2 billion low-tech pencils are sold in the U.S. and 14 billion are sold worldwide.
So how are pencils made in factories?
VIDEO HERE (7:57 minutes)
Look up Leonard Read's work "I Pencil." A fascinating look at the division of labor and the interconnectedness of society (and the reason why central planning ALWAYS fails).
ReplyDeleteAnd ups and fed ex were created without the government bloat.
DeleteLook up the essay “I, pencil” for an eye opener.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikisource.org/wiki/I,_Pencil
DeleteI had no idea but always wondered. How ta hell they get the lead in the wood?
ReplyDeleteSame here. Now we know.
DeleteIt ain't lead. it's graphite.
DeleteI always have a stubby pencil on a clip in my shirt pocket It won’t run out of ink when I need it, & it can write on many surfaces other than paper. You never know…
ReplyDeleteAlso, many of us would occasionally like to know how to get lead in the pencil…
ReplyDeleteThey sell so many pencils because the sharpeners are so crappy. The sharpeners just chew up pencils. I they someone made a decent sharpener, 80% less pencils would be necessary.
ReplyDeleteIt's called a "knife".
DeleteWhen my stepson was a captain (airborne) in Afghanistan, we sent him boxes and boxes of pencils we bought in bulk. He would hand them out to children as he entered villages he was responsible for patrolling. The elders really respected him for handing out something that was both useful and very difficult to acquire. The captain he replaced was IED'd.
ReplyDeleteSurely soapstone must have been of use to those who had access to it? Always wondered about that.
ReplyDeleteThis reminded me of a great Milton Friedman video.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67tHtpac5ws&t=42s