Jeremiah J. Corder

Pencils: Carbon and Graphite

Pencil: “An instrument for writing or drawing, consisting of a thin stick of graphite or a similar substance” (Webster). Pencils have been around us for a long time, and although we are more than familiar with the look, feel, smell, and use of our standard no. 2 pencil, we do not ever focus on the origin of pencils. What is the carbon involved with the pencil and where did they come from?
When the pencil was original found/discovered back in the mid 1500’s, it merely consisted of a substance that was crystallized in nature and first confirmed as lead. Many years later, the material originally coined as lead was re-evaluated and determined to be a material that would be named Graphite. “In the late 18th century, Swedish chemist Karl Wilhelm Scheele identified the substance as a crystallized form of carbon, like diamond, however structurally very different. He named it Graphite, from the Greek word for writing, ‘Graphein’” (Castell).

The original pencils consisted of a flattened piece of graphite glued together in the middle of two pieces of wood. After the original graphite pencils were created, a crossbreed of sorts was created known as the graphite-clay. These series of pencils allowed artists and writers to use different shades of the graphite color. Ranging from 6B to 6H, the pencil had developed from a basic writing utensil an asset to artists and writers around the world.
Now, graphite for example, is specifically an allotrope of the element, Carbon. Carbon is the sixth most abundant element in our universe, most commonly gained from coal deposits and has been around for as long as our ancient ancestors (Thomas). The element carbon has three main allotropes that are most frequently associated with it; those being: diamonds, amorphous and graphite. Graphite, the main base in pencils, is commonly known as one of the softest materials known being used today.
¬¬In today’s world, the most common pencil is the generic no. 2. Pencils have always come in the standard school bus yellow color. Why you may ask? In the 1800s when pencils were ‘created,’ China had great influence over them. The world’s nicest graphite was being produced out of central China. American manufacturers needed a way to communicate to their buyers that this was grade quality lead. Here lies the question to “why yellow?” “In China, the color yellow is associated with royalty and respect. American pencil manufacturers began painting their pencils bright yellow to communicate this “regal” feeling and association with China. However, according to Henry Petroski’s history of the pencil, the European producer Koh-I-Noor was the first to paint one of their pencils yellow” (602).
As of today, no. 2 pencils still remain the most recognizable. Although there have been many advances as far as the use of mechanical pencils among other choices, we have retained the idea of the pencil with the idea that was set traditionally in the 1800’s. Used widely between artists, writers, teachers, doctors, and anyone else capable, the pencil has grown to be one of the most needed and wanted materials of the 21st century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Castell, Faber. “Pencils – A History.” Faber-Castell. Faber-Castell, 2009. Web. 14 Jan. 2013. .
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility – Office of Science Education. “The Element Carbon.” It’s Elemental. Jefferson Lab, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013. .
Webster. “Carbon.” Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013. .
602, Studio. “Pencil History.” Pencils.com. Pencils.com, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013. .