THE AMERUCAN PENCIL TRADE

Bruce Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 1207, 28 May 1880, Page 6

THE AMERUCAN PENCIL TRADE

The pencil works of the Dixon Co., of NewJersey, established a few years ago, present to the visitor many of those novel features in the application of machinery which appear to be j characteristic of nearly every industry in the United States. Graphite of great purity i 8 found at Ticonderoga, N.Y., both in the form suitable for the manufacture of crucible?, and for the production of what are erroneously known as " lead pencils." The graphite is re- j i duced in mills to a Hue impalpable powder, almost as mobile as water, and making the fingers as smooth of if they had been oiled. A process of mixing with a peculiar description 01 , clay is then used, according to the degree of " hardness " desired in the pencils ; and the substance having been reduced to a dough form, one of the moat curious processes of the manufacture is seen. The dough is placed in a cylinder, within which a screw works a well-fitting plunger, and at the bottom is a plate having holes of the bhape and size of which the "lead" is to be cut. As the coils of tenacious material issue from these holes, they are cut up in lengths equal to three pencils, straightened, flattened, and baked. It has been found possible to run a coil 4,000 ft. long without breaking ; such a length ef unbroken pencil material hiving been shown by the Dixon Co. at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The Americans have in their own territory that Florida cedar which makers in Europe use so largely for pencils, and great quantities of the necessary timber are cut down for the Dixon Co. The cedar is brought horns to .New Jersey, not in logs, but in blocks 7 in. long, and these again are cut into strips measuring 3£ in. wide by 3-16t,hs thick. This last fact reveals two differences between the methods usually employed in Europe, for the pencil-slip is in this factory made of a width to yield six pencils, instead of being cut singly ; aud bith halves of the pencil are alike ; and not, as in the older method, one portion narrower than the other, i'oth sides of the pencil-slip are equally grooved ; and the process of tilling the slips, which is done by hand, is exceedingly interesting. E.ch girl en^a^ed in filling takes up a grooved slip in one hand, a bunch of the straight "le.uls" in the other, aud with a dexte:ity begotten of practice, very rapidly inserts six of the stalks in a slip. This being handed to a second girl, the latter receives from a thiri worker the second half of the slip, over which a brush of hat glue has just been pataed. Tho two halves are brought together, euch oue, it will be remarked, embracing half of the "lead " and then, when a row of the^e slips has Lecn tilled, they are pressed under a screw-frame, ti.l the glue is dry. The next process is to smooth the ends where the " k;ulo " project, and then we repch auother very interesting machine. In this machine a revolving cutter seizes the slip, and with two cuts removes the superfluous wood, separates tae pencils, and rounds them into shape. Trie pencils fail from this machine in a continuous stream, or rather in six continuous streams, each pencil finished for use, and so smooth, it is alleged, that the finest sand-paper would scratch them. American ingenuity is also seen in an aranyement by which the chips falling from this machine are sucked away by a " blower " into the engine-room aud consumed as fuel, with the result of keeping the place perfectly free from rubbish. The next curiosity is the " counting boaid " a grooved board or table, on which, by rubbing a haudful of puncda over it, and aesintj that each grove is full, a gro-.s of pencils can be accurately counted off in live or six seconds. Other ingenious machines are in use for staining and varnishing the pencils, stamping marks aud names, and finally packing them in a singular and convenient method, the package being oval in shape. By the use of checks on the quantity of material given out, the Dixon & Co. boasts of being able to secure that if even one pencil of the SO.OOO made daily is abstracted it will be missed : and incidents are not wanting where thiß fact, being unknown and unsuspected, has brought people into trouble who thought that t one pencil might be removed from amongst such large numbers. The rule of the house is, that if a pencil is missed from a room, every one employed in that room is discharged unless the pencil be found ; and as there is a further rule that no one discharged shall in any case be re-emploped, every one in the place is interested in securing the honesty both of visitors and co-workers. A curious story is told of Mr. Dixon, founder of the crucible manufactory to which the pencil trade has within the last few years been added. In IS3O he proposed to make pencils, and actually showed some in Boston, Mass., where he was told he must put European labels on them if he wished them to sell. Unlike most American inventors, he took such offence at this that instead of persevering, he went home and resolved never to make auother pencil. Now, the sii'.-ccssorß to the crucible business, having rcsuniud the attempt, make pencils in such abuudaucj 'tnd of such excellence, that while' t'jcy can offer a cheap pencil at one-third of a cent, they make in all about 400 different styles, in shape, quality, hardneas, &c, and turn out so many pencils that it is calculated they produce o-je-third of the entire number used annually in the United States. This success iv supplanting pencils of European make is attributed to the adoption of that characteristic to which reference has already beeu made, the determination of American manufacturers to use machinery where -ver possible in every branch of their work. — ' Chambers s Journal.'