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History of the Lead Pencil

Leadpencils, of course, contain no lead. The writing mediumis graphite, a form of carbon. Writing instruments made from sticks cut fromhigh quality natural graphite mined at Cumberland in England and wrapped in string or insertedin wooden tubes came into use around 1560. [1] The term'black lead pencil' was in use by 1565. By 1662, pencils were produced inNuremberg, in what is now Germany, apparently by gluing sticks of graphite intocases assembled from two pieces of wood. By the early 18^th century,wood-cased pencils that did not require the high quality graphite available onlyin England were produced in Nuremberg with cores made by mixing graphite, sulfurand various binding agents. These German pencils were inferior to Englishpencils, which continued to be made with sticks cut from natural graphite intothe 1860s. The 1855 catalog of Waterlow & Sons, London, offered'Pure Cumberland Lead Pencils.'

In 1795, French chemist Nicholas Jacques Conté received a patent for the modern process for making pencil leads by mixing powderedgraphite and clay, forming sticks, and hardening them in a furnace. According toPetroski (pp. 70-71), 'the brittle ceramic leads…were inserted inwooden cases of a modified design, one used by some early German pencil makersto encase their sulfur-and-graphite leads. The piece of wood into which theleads were placed has a groove about twice as deep as the thickness of the rodof lead. A slat of wood was then glued in over the lead to completely fill thegroove, and the pencil was ready to be finished to the desired exteriorshape.'

In the U.S., wood-cased lead pencils were produced in theBoston area by William Munroe beginning in 1812. Munroe’s cores were made fromdried graphite paste and were not hardened in a furnace. Between the early 1820sand 1850s there were several small pencil makers near Boston, including WilliamMunroe, John Thoreau, Joseph Dixon, and Benjamin Ball. [2]Munroe, of Concord, MA, exhibited lead pencils at of theMassachusetts Charitable Mechanical Association in and around Boston in 1837,1839, and 1841. Thoreau and then John Thoreau & Son, also of Concord,MA, exhibited their pencils at these exhibitions in 1837 and 1844. [2a] The pencils they producedwere inferior to those made in England from natural graphite and in France andAustria using the Conté process. [3] The photograph tothe right shows a bundle of pencils manufactured by Ball. Holden &Cutter, Boston, MA, advertised French and English lead pencils c. 1840-60; Grigg& Elliot, Philadelphia, PA, advertised lead pencils c. 1850-60; John W.Clothier, Philadelphia, PA, advertised Faber's, Guttknecht, and Brookman &Lagdon's lead pencils c. 1858. (Hagley Museum and Library)

In 1847, Dixon set up a new factory just outside New YorkCity that used graphite to manufacture crucibles for melting metals, polish forcast iron stoves, and, on a limited scale, pencils. However, most lead pencilssold in the U.S. were still imported from Europe, increasingly from Germany asthe quality of German pencils improved with adoption of the Conté process. In1861, Eberhard Faber set up a factory in New York that made pencils using leadsfrom Germany, and in 1862 pencils made by another New York company, the EaglePencil Co., won an award in London. The American Lead Pencil Co. and theJoseph Dixon Crucible Co. started making lead pencils in 1865 and 1872,respectively. (Supplement to Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed.,Vol. 4, 1889)

Mass production of lead pencils began in theU.S. after the Civil War. During 1864-67, several patents were granted formachinery for making lead pencils [4], including a Dixon wood planing machine forshaping pencils that produced 132 pencils per minute. [5] U.S. productionof pencils was encouraged by the import tariff of 1865 as well as increasingdemand, and the four companies that were the principal manufacturersof lead pencils throughout the latter 19^th century and early 20^thcentury—the Eagle Pencil Co., Eberhard Faber, the American Lead Pencil Co.,and the Joseph Dixon Crucible Co.—all set up or expanded pencil factories inthe New York/New Jersey area. [6]

American Lead PencilCompany, 1872

According to Petroski (p. 169), 'The demand for pencilsseems to have been growing at an unprecedented rate at the time, and in theearly 1870s it was estimated that over 20 million pencils were being consumed inthe United States each year.' In 1887, a Dixon Crucible ad stated:

In 1868 we commenced building machinery for making lead pencils, and on November 18, 1872, we shipped the first invoice of one gross [of pencils] to Voorhees Bros., Morristown, N. J. Now our sales are beyond what our wildest expectations were then. We began in a building 25 x 25, with four or five hands, and now use one hundred thousand square feet of floor space and employ four hundred hands. In the beginning we had only three or four kinds [of pencils] for business and school uses; now we make hundreds of different kinds for business offices, schools, drawing classes, artists, architects, and mechanical draughtsmen, besides making a large variety of pen-holders, point protectors, slate pencils, artist’s cases, special leads, assortment boxes, erasive rubbers, etc., etc. [7]

In1878, Charles J. Cohen, Philadelphia, PA, advertised Dixon American Graphitelead pencils. By 1891, Dixon Crucible was issuing stock certificates. In 1892, Dixon Crucible alone manufactured more than 30million pencils. [8] Petroski (p. 182) reports that 'One observer, writing in1894, noted that in twenty years the cost of pencils had been reduced by 50percent, at least in part because of the invention of machinery such as thatused by Dixon.'. Petroski (p. 205) reports an estimate that in 1912 U.S. andworld production of pencils were 750 million and two billion pencils,respectively.
Joseph DixonCrucible Company Stock Certificate, 1900

Before a market for mechanical pencil sharpeners could bedeveloped, it was necessary not only that a substantial number of pencils were isuse but also that these pencils could be sharpened by a machine. The easiestpencil to sharpen with a machine is one with a round or hexagonal wood casethat has a round lead that is centered in the case. The pencils made by BenjaminBall in the mid-19th century had square leads that were typically off-center andthe wood cases were somewhat out-of-round, as the photo to the right reveals.

Round lead was used in mechanical pencilsby the early 19^th century. The illustration to the right shows mechanical pencils from an 1883office supply catalog.

However, square lead continued to be used in most wood-casedpencils until the mid-1870s. (Petroski, p. 184). Wielandy (p. 67) states that 'All theblack lead pencils exhibited at the Centennial in Philadelphia in 1876 containedsquare leads, and it is said that Joseph Dixon Crucible Company was among thefirst manufacturers of pencils to use round leads, making the change shortlyafter the Centennial year.' [9] In its 1881catalog, Robert Clarke & Co., a stationer, advertised Dixon AmericanGraphite, American Lead Pencil Co., and imported A. W. Faber pencils, all with achoice of round and hexagonal cross-sections for the wood cases. The Dixonpencils illustrated in the catalog had square leads while the Faber pencils hadround leads.

The explanation for use of square lead in wood pencils isthat when square lead was used, it was necessary to cut a groove in only one ofthe two pieces of wood used to make the case. In order to use round lead, it wasnecessary to cut matching grooves in the two pieces of wood. Petroski reportsthat limitations of woodworking machinery may have prevented round lead frombeing widely used in wood-cased pencils until the last quarter of the nineteenthcentury. Petroski states that by the late 1870s U.S. pencil makers had machineswith the precision and speed to mass produce wood-cased pencils with roundleads. (Petroski, pp. 186, 251) In other respects as well, by the late 1870s thepencils made by the four large U.S. companies, which engaged in research anddevelopment to improve their pencils, were of substantially higher quality thanthe pencils made before the Civil War by the small Boston area companies.(Petroski, pp. 336-37)

Thus, by 1880 there was a potential market for mechanicalpencil sharpeners. Click here to read aboutthe development of early mechanical pencil sharpeners.
Trade cards advertising Eagle Pencil Co. products

1912 advertisement for Dixon's lead pencils. The large pencil appears to havebeen whittled.
Courtesy of the Museum of BusinessHistory & Technology

'Indiarubber,' evidently intended for use as a pencil eraser, wasadvertised by William H. Maurice, a Philadelphia, PA, stationer, in 1847. Eraserswere attached to the ends of pencils by 1853, when Charles Goodyear wrote:'Pencil-Heads. These are made of the artist's India rubber...; theyare set into metal sockets...or are formed into rings or heads which areintended to slip over the ends of a wooden pencil...' (CharlesGoodyear, The Applications and Uses of Vulcanized Gum-Elastic, Vol. II,New Haven, 1853, p. 39) 'Rubber erasers' and 'Rubber pencil-tips' are listed amongthe purchases for members of the 1869 Illinois Constitutional Convention. (Debates& Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Illinois,Sept. 13, 1869) 'Rubber erasers' were advertised by Charles J. Cohen,a Philadelphia, PA, stationer, in 1878. It was reported in 1880 that'The new style of rubber eraser inserted in the head of the pencil hasproven very popular.' (The American Bookseller, Jan. 1880, p.16) Both a 'Stationers'Rubber' and a rubber 'Crystal Eraser' were advertised by TheAmerican News Co., New York, NY, in 1883, and the same company advertised 'Rubber pencil and ink erasers' in 1884. (Hagley Museum andLibrary)

Whiteslate pencils made by John Cain & Co., Rutland, VT, were exhibited in 1844at the fourth exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association inBoston, MA. From that time, if not earlier, through the early 20thcentury, pencils cut from solid pieces of softer grades ofslate or soap-stone were used by schoolchildren to write on tablets cut fromharder grades of slate. Apparently, artificial slate pencils were also made; forexample, Patent No. 316,374 award to Samuel Kraus on April 21, 1895, describes amethod of making slate pencils using ground talc or soapstone mixed with groundpotter's clay. Slate pencils were available with the slate coreunwrapped, wrapped in paper, and encased in wood like a lead pencil. Holden& Cutter, Boston, MA, advertised slate pencils c. 1840-60; Grigg &Elliot, Philadelphia, PA, advertised slate pencils c. 1850-60; Charles J. Cohen,Philadelphia, PA, advertised slate pencils, including wood-cased ones, in 1878.(Hagley Museum and Library) We haveseen advertisements for slate pencils dating as late as 1914. According to Wielandy (p.91), wood-cased slate pencils were still sold in the early 1930s.

Paper-wrapped slate pencils
Britannia Box of Slate Pencils, made in Germany
Eagle Pencil Co. wood cased slate pencils with fiber erasers

Some mechanical sharpeners were designedexclusively for slate pencils, but a number of 19th century mechanicalsharpeners were marketed for use in sharpening both lead and slate pencils.

PencilVending Machines

E.W. Peck Co, New York, NY, advertised a pencil vending machine in the July 1910 issue of Book-Keeper magazine. That ad stated 'The machine is new--an absolute innovation in vending devices, as pencils have never been sold through slot machines before.' The same ad claimed that a thousand of these machines were already installed in New York. Other pencil vending machines were marketed by Osborne Specialty Co., Parker Pencil Services, Clawson Machine Co., Charles Weeks Co., Miller Vending Machine Co., and Bally Manufacturing Co. In 1923 Weeks offered a pencil vending machine that printed up to 16 letters (for example, OFFICE MUSEUM) on the pencils as they were dispensed. In 1928 and 1936, Miller advertised a pencil dispenser with a pencil sharpener on top. In 1938, Bally advertised its 56-inch tall electric Rainbow Pencil Vendor. Vintage ads for these machines can be viewed by searching the historical magazine archive available online at http://arcade-museum.com.

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Notes:

[1]This historical sketch is based on numerous articles onthe subject in the late 19^th century and early 20^thcentury trade press; Henry Petroski, The Pencil: A History of Design andCircumstance, Knopf, NY, 1989, 1998; Leonard C. Bruno, Science andTechnology Firsts, Gale, 1996; and histories available on the web sites ofIncense Cedar Institute (http://www.pencils.com); Dixon Ticonderoga (http://www.prang.com);and Sanford Berol (http://www.berol.com.uk). [Backto text]

[2] The Ball Pen and Paper Co., Harvard, Mass., producedpencils from 1830 until shortly before the Civil War. Based on research gatheredat the Harvard Mass. Historical Society, Rich Karlowsky supplied the followinginformation: 'In 1830, Mr. [Benjamin] Ball set up shop in the Mill Districtof Harvard, Mass…. On one floor he manufactured paper and on the other…pencils….John Thoreau and Benjamin Ball were producing pencils at the same time. Thoreaupencils were considered high quality because of the darker lead. Ball alsoproduced a pencil, but it did not write as well as the Thoreau.' Mr.Karlowsky acquired bundles of Ball pencils that were found in the attic of an oldschoolhouse. Each bundle consists of a dozen cedar pencils with square leads,tied together with thread and with a paper label that reads 'SuperiorWarranted Black Lead Pencils Manufactured by B. Ball, Harvard, Mass.' For a picture of a similar bundle of Thoreau pencils, seePetroski, p. 314. The pencils, which are shorter and thinner than the standardpencil produced today, are only approximately round, and no two have the samecross-section. While the leads in some of the pencils are approximatelycentered, some of the leads are well off center. [Backto text]
[2a] First through Fourth Exhibition of the MassachusettsCharitable Mechanic Association, Boston, 1837, 1839, 1841, 1844.

[3]A mechanical (or 'propelling') pencil waspatented by Sampson Mordan and John Isaac Hawkins in Britain in 1822. For ahistory and superb pictures of early mechanical pencils, see Deborah Crosby, VictorianPencils: Tools to Jewels, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, PA, 1998. Crosby(1998, p. 62) states that 'Huge numbers of patents were issued for avariety of advancements or improvements in propelling pencils during thenineteenth century (between 1820 and 1873, more than 160 patents were listedpertaining to mechanical pencils).' In the U.S., patents for mechanicalpencils predate the earliest patents for wood-cased lead pencils or pencilsharpeners. [Back to text]

[4]U.S. Patent Nos. 43,267; 45,679; 54,511 (Dixon, 1866);62,829. [Back to text]

[5]Petroski, p. 169; 'Dixon Ticonderoga Company,' InternationalDirectory of Company Histories, St. James Press, Vol. 12, 1996, p. 115. [Backto text]

[6]According to an 1891 account, 'The manufacture ofpencils was until about 1863 confined almost exclusively to Germany…; but withthe [U.S.] tariff of 1865 the business was started here, and new methods wereintroduced, automatic machinery being largely adopted, and a reduction in thecost of production followed until lower prices than had ever been known werereached. In 1878 a combination was made among the makers, and it continued until1889, realizing a large profit to the four manufacturers interested. Theagreement was broken up in the latter year, and the market broke on all exceptthe finer grades, which sold on brands, and today no one can complain of theprice of pencils or the quality, for the commercial grades are superior to thefinest produced thirty years ago.' Letter to the Editor, The AmericanStationer, April 16, 1891, p. 825. [Back totext]

[7] The Stationer and Printer, Jan. 1, 1887, p.1742. [Back to text]

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[8] Walter Day, 'Dixon American Graphite Pencils,' Business,April 1892, p. ix. [Back to text]

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[9] Paul J. Wielandy, TheRomance of an Industry: A Retrospective Review of the Book and StationeryBusiness, Blackwell, Wielandy, St. Louis, 1933. Wielandy wasin the wholesale stationery business by 1884.[Back to text]