COMMON MATERIALS AND OF fiCE SUPPLY PRODUCTS:PENCILS AND PENS

PENCILS

The origins of the modern pencil date back to the mid 1500s, when graphite was discovered in the Seathwaite Valley in England. Soon there- after, graphite was used as a writing instrument. The real breakthrough came when French chemist Nicholas Conte discovered a process of firing a mixture of clay and graphite in varying proportions to create writing instruments of different hardnesses. These kiln-fired mixtures were encased in wood, and the pencil was born. In the United States, William Monroe manufactured wooden pencils in the early 1800s. Mass production of pencils in the United States began during the Civil War, when machinery for the production of pencils began to make handmade pencils obsolete. The mass production of pencils led to other related advances, such as the rubber eraser, first patented by Hyman Lipman in Philadelphia, and the mechanical pencil sharpener. Pencils do not contain lead, as is commonly thought. Instead, graphite, a form of carbon, is used along with various binders to modify the hardness of the pencil.

PENS

The history of the ink pen dates back many centuries, to the days of writing with a quill and ink with a charcoal base. Modern pens are much different than the reed, quill, or fountain pen of centuries ago. These older designs had several significant drawbacks, such as the uneven flow of ink, the slow drying of the ink documents, and the laborious cleanup associated with keeping the pens in good writing condition. The first improvement was the switch to faster-drying ink. Quick-drying ink was already used to print newspapers, but it was not until a Hungarian journalist, Laszlo Biro, developed a pen that used fast-drying ink that pens became practical for consumers. Biro developed a pen that used a tiny metal ball rotating inside a metal tube to keep the ink in the pen from drying out and let the ink flow out at a controlled rate. These “ballpoint pens” were patented by Biro in 1943, with the patent eventually being acquired by the British government so that the pens could be used by Royal Air Force crews. Milton Reynolds produced the first commercial ballpoint pen in the United States in 1945, selling thousands of pens until the more inexpensive BIC ballpoint pens were introduced on the American market in the mid 1950s. The development of new inks for use in these pens was a laborious trial-and-error process. Inks using linseed, rosin, or wood oil are darkened with dyes to produce different colors. Carbon gives plant oil ink a black appearance, chromium produces green and orange colors, cadmium colors the ink red, and iron in the form of ferrous sulfate gives the widely used blue ink color.