PENCIL, the name given to the small brushes used by artists, whether made of hog's bristles, camel hair, fiteh, or sable. The larger brushes are sometimes set in a tin tube, and the smaller in quills of different sizes. The soft pencils for artists are made as follows :—The tail of the animal (sable, badger, marten, ke.) is scoured in a solution of alum ; then steeped for several hours in lukewarm water; then dried in linen cloths; and finally combed out regularly. The hairs are seized with pincers, and cut of near the skin ; and the little parcels of hair are sorted into group; according to their length. A few hairs aro then taken, enough for one pencil, and placed in a little receptacle which holds them while a thread is bound round near the roots. The boar of the pencil is then trimmed fiat by scissors. The hairs thus prepared are fitted either into quills or into tin tubes. The quills are those of swans, geese, ducks, lapwings, pigeons, or larks, according to the size of the pencil. Each quill is softened and swelled in hot water, and the bunch of hairs is introduced at the larger end, and pulled forward by a simple apparatus to the smaller end, where the shrinking of the quill binds the halm closely. The great art in pencil-making is so to arrange the hairs that their ends may be made to converge to a fine point when moistened and drawn between the lips ; and it is said that females are more successful than men in preparing the small and delicate pencils.
The well-known Illack-kad pencil is made by cutting "Cumberland lead," or plumbago, into thin plates with a saw, and again into strips an wide as the plate is thick. These strips are then laid in a groove in a piece of cedar, upon which is glued another and thinner piece : the whole is afterwards rounded by a plane adapted to that purpose. Pencils are commonly marked with certain lettere to denote the quality of the lead, as H for hard, B for black, 31 for medium, and so on. Successful attempts have been made to use black-lead powder, mixed with other substances, as a composition for pencils ; it is not suitable for fine artistic purposes, but is available for common use.
Other pencils are made of black and coloured chalks for drawing, and are much more convenient than the port-crayon. Several recent
kinds are described under CriAYONS.
The ever-pointed pencil is an instrument no simple and so well known as to require little description. The point, or nozzle, is made hollow to receive a small cylindrical piece of black lead, about three-quarters of an inch long, which cannot pass through the lower end without some little force. Within the case is a screw or worm, which, if the case be turned round with one hand while the point of the pencil is held by the other, causes a wire or mandril, about the same size as the lead, to advance or retire. When a fresh lead is pit into the point, the case must he turned round towards the heft until the man dril is drawn up as far as possible. The point containing the lead is then to be screwed on to the case, and the case being turned gently to the right Land, the lead must be forced forward until it can just be seen at the point. These leads are made of different degrees and sizes, and the cases are marked accordingly. The leads are manufactured in the following manner : —After the plumbago is cut into square strips of the same diameter aa, or a little greater than, the lead required, they are passed successively through three ruby holes, each smaller than the preceding. By this means they are rendered perfectly round and smooth, so as to offer no impediment to the working of the penciL Most cases aro made with a reservoir at the top, in which a supply of five or six leads may be carried.
Considerable ingenuity has been displayed within the hat few years in the production of these ever-pointed pencils. In sonic, the small rod of black lead is moved backwards and forwards by the action of a screw, as just described ; in some, by a slide ; and in others, by per cussion. One sort is made of vulcanised india-rubber, with the end having such a nicely adjusted diameter as just to hold the lead steadily, and yet allow it to be moved by a slight percussion. Some of the best acting ever-pointed pencils aro now saleable retail at sixpence each, while one particular kind is manufactured to sell retail at so low a price as twopence.