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108-437: A pencil ( / ˈ p ɛ n s ə l / ) is a writing or drawing implement with a solid pigment core in a protective casing that reduces the risk of core breakage and keeps it from marking the user's hand . Pencils create marks by physical abrasion , leaving a trail of solid core material that adheres to a sheet of paper or other surface. They are distinct from pens , which dispense liquid or gel ink onto
216-488: A diary or journal). The global spread of digital communication systems such as e-mail and social media has made writing an increasingly important feature of daily life, where these systems mix with older technologies like paper, pencils, whiteboards, printers, and copiers. Substantial amounts of everyday writing characterize most workplaces in developed countries . In many occupations (e.g. law, accounting , software design , human resources ), written documentation
324-669: A kiln . By varying the ratio of graphite to clay, the hardness of the graphite rod could also be varied. This method of manufacture, which had been earlier discovered by the Austrian Joseph Hardtmuth , the founder of the Koh-I-Noor in 1790, remains in use. In 1802, the production of graphite leads from graphite and clay was patented by the Koh-I-Noor company in Vienna. In England, pencils continued to be made from whole sawn graphite. Henry Bessemer 's first successful invention (1838)
432-469: A porte-crayon ...the pencil stub can be inserted into the end of a shaft...Extenders were especially common among engineers and draftsmen, whose favorite pencils were priced dearly. The use of an extender also has the advantage that the pencil does not appreciably change its heft as it wears down." Artists use extenders to maximize the use of their colored pencils . Graphite pencils are the most common types of pencil, and are encased in wood. They are made of
540-418: A smoothbore cannon, used to batter the wooden hulls of opposing ships, fortifications, or fixed emplacements, and as a long-range anti-personnel weapon. However, masonry stone forts designed during the early modern period (known as star forts ) were almost impervious to the effects of round shot. In land battles, round shot would often plough through many ranks of troops, causing multiple casualties. Unlike
648-466: A steno pencil , are expected to be very reliable, and their lead is break-proof. Nevertheless, steno pencils are sometimes sharpened at both ends to enhance reliability. They are round to avoid pressure pain during long texts. Golf pencils are usually short (a common length is 9 cm or 3.5 in) and very cheap. They are also known as library pencils , as many libraries offer them as disposable writing instruments. A standard, hexagonal, "#2 pencil"
756-450: A "little tail" (see penis ; pincellus ) originally referred to an artist's fine brush of camel hair, also used for writing before modern lead or chalk pencils. Though the archetypal pencil was an artist's brush, the stylus , a thin metal stick used for scratching in papyrus or wax tablets , was used extensively by the Romans and for palm-leaf manuscripts . As a technique for drawing,
864-661: A cabinetmaker in Concord , Massachusetts, made the first American wood pencils in 1812. This was not the only pencil-making occurring in Concord. According to Henry Petroski , transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau discovered how to make a good pencil out of inferior graphite using clay as the binder ; this invention was prompted by his father's pencil factory in Concord, which employed graphite found in New Hampshire in 1821 by Charles Dunbar. Munroe's method of making pencils
972-778: A complex interaction among available tools, intentions, cultural customs, cognitive routines, genres, tacit and explicit knowledge, and the constraints and limitations of the writing system(s) deployed. Inscriptions have been made with fingers , styluses , quills , ink brushes , pencils , pens , and many styles of lithography ; surfaces used for these inscriptions include stone tablets , clay tablets , bamboo slats, papyrus , wax tablets , vellum , parchment , paper , copperplate , slate , porcelain , and other enameled surfaces . The Incas used knotted cords known as quipu (or khipu) for keeping records. The typewriter and subsequently various digital word processors have recently become widespread writing tools, and studies have compared
1080-583: A graphite stick inserted, and the halves then glued together—essentially the same method in use to this day. The first attempt to manufacture graphite sticks from powdered graphite was in Nuremberg , Germany, in 1662. It used a mixture of graphite, sulphur , and antimony . English and German pencils were not available to the French during the Napoleonic Wars ; France, under naval blockade imposed by Great Britain,
1188-399: A gun. Its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the barrel from which it is shot. A round shot fired from a large-caliber gun is also called a cannonball . The cast iron cannonball was introduced by French artillery engineers after 1450; it had the capacity to reduce traditional English castle wall fortifications to rubble. French armories would cast a tubular cannon body in
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#17330851310601296-441: A lengthy patent fight the two companies agreed to share their formulas. Charcoal pencils are made of charcoal and provide fuller blacks than graphite pencils, but tend to smudge easily and are more abrasive than graphite. Sepia-toned and white pencils are also available for duotone techniques. Carbon pencils are generally made of a mixture of clay and lamp black , but are sometimes blended with charcoal or graphite depending on
1404-471: A mark of identical tone nor have the same hardness. Most manufacturers, and almost all in Europe, designate their pencils with the letters H (commonly interpreted as "hardness") to B (commonly "blackness"), as well as F (usually taken to mean "fineness", although F pencils are no more fine or more easily sharpened than any other grade. Also referred as "firm" by many manufacturers). The standard writing pencil
1512-423: A mixture of clay and graphite and their darkness varies from light grey to black. Their composition allows for the smoothest strokes. Solid graphite pencils are solid sticks of graphite and clay composite (as found in a 'graphite pencil'), about the diameter of a common pencil, which have no casing other than a wrapper or label. They are often called "woodless" pencils. They are used primarily for art purposes as
1620-596: A monopoly on the production of pencils until a method of reconstituting the graphite powder was found in 1662 in Germany. However, the distinctively square English pencils continued to be made with sticks cut from natural graphite into the 1860s. The town of Keswick , near the original findings of block graphite, still manufactures pencils, the factory also being the location of the Derwent Pencil Museum . The meaning of "graphite writing implement" apparently evolved late in
1728-620: A more dependable method for creating permanent records of transactions. On the other hand, writing in both ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica may have evolved through the political necessity to manage the calendar for recording historical and environmental events. Further innovations included more uniform, predictable, and widely dispersed legal systems, the distribution of accessible versions of sacred texts , and furthering practices of scientific inquiry and knowledge management , all of which were largely reliant on portable and easily reproducible forms of inscribed language. The history of writing
1836-455: A mountainous Egyptian mining site known as Serabit el-Khadem. This site was also home to a temple of Hathor, the "Mistress of turquoise". A later, two line inscription has also been found at Wadi el-Hol in Central Egypt. Based on hieroglyphic prototypes, but also including entirely new symbols, each sign apparently stood for a consonant rather than a word: the basis of an alphabetic system. It
1944-486: A plasticised graphite mix within a wood-composite core. Residual graphite from a pencil stick is not poisonous, and graphite is harmless if consumed. Although lead has not been used for writing since antiquity, such as in Roman styli, lead poisoning from pencils was not uncommon. Until the middle of the 20th century the paint used for the outer coating could contain high concentrations of lead, and this could be ingested when
2052-536: A semantic (meaning) element called a radical with an existing character to indicate the pronunciation, called a phonetic . However, such phonetic elements complement the logographic elements, rather than vice versa. The main logographic system in use today is Chinese characters , used with some modification for the various languages or dialects of China , Japan , and sometimes in Korean , although in South and North Korea ,
2160-521: A set of symbols and rules to encode aspects of spoken language, such as its lexicon and syntax . However, written language may take on characteristics distinct from those of any spoken language. Writing is a cognitive and social activity involving neuropsychological and physical processes . The outcome of this activity, also called "writing", and sometimes a " text ", is a series of physically inscribed , mechanically transferred , or digitally represented symbols. The interpreter or activator of
2268-404: A sharp point. Mechanical pencils have more elaborate casings which are not bonded to the core; instead, they support separate, mobile pigment cores that can be extended or retracted (usually through the casing's tip) as needed. These casings can be reloaded with new cores (usually graphite) as the previous ones are exhausted. Pencil , from Old French pincel , from late Latin penicillus
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#17330851310602376-423: A single piece, and cannonballs took the shape of a sphere initially made from stone material. Advances in gunpowder manufacturing soon led the replacement of stone cannonballs with cast iron ones. Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, referred to as gunstone (Middle English: gunneston ), but by the 17th century, from iron. It was used as the most accurate projectile that could be fired by
2484-409: A softer, oily core that can leave marks on smooth surfaces such as glass or porcelain . The most common pencil casing is thin wood , usually hexagonal in section, but sometimes cylindrical or triangular , permanently bonded to the core. Casings may be of other materials, such as plastic or paper. To use the pencil, the casing must be carved or peeled off to expose the working end of the core as
2592-727: A text is called a "reader". In general, writing systems do not constitute languages in and of themselves, but rather a means of encoding language such that it can be read by others across time and space. While not all languages use a writing system, those that do can complement and extend the capacities of spoken language by creating durable forms of language that can be transmitted across space (e.g. written correspondence ) and stored over time (e.g. libraries or other public records). Writing can also have knowledge-transforming effects, since it allows humans to externalize their thinking in forms that are easier to reflect on, elaborate on, reconsider, and revise. Any instance of writing involves
2700-735: A variant of the early Greek alphabet, gave rise to the Etruscan alphabet and its own descendants, such as the Latin alphabet and Runes . Other descendants from the Greek alphabet include Cyrillic , used to write Bulgarian , Russian and Serbian , among others. The Phoenician system was also adapted into the Aramaic script , from which the Hebrew and the Arabic scripts are descended. The Tifinagh script (Berber languages)
2808-488: Is a set of written symbols that represent consonants and vowels . In a perfectly phonological alphabet, the letters would correspond perfectly to the language's phonemes . Thus, a writer could predict the spelling of a word given its pronunciation, and a speaker could predict the pronunciation of a word given its spelling. However, as languages often evolve independently of their writing systems, and writing systems have been borrowed for languages they were not designed for,
2916-403: Is as yet undeciphered. The term 'Indus script' is mainly applied to that used in the mature Harappan phase, which perhaps evolved from a few signs found in early Harappa after 3500 BC. The script is written from right to left, and sometimes follows a boustrophedonic style. In 2015, the epigrapher Bryan Wells estimated there were around 694 distinct signs. This is above 400, so scholars accept
3024-406: Is available, but is not considered a standard ISO size. Pioneered by Taiwanese stationery manufacturer Bensia Pioneer Industrial Corporation in the early 1970s, Pop a Point Pencils are also known as Bensia Pencils , stackable pencils or non-sharpening pencils. It is a type of pencil where many short pencil tips are housed in a cartridge-style plastic holder. A blunt tip is removed by pulling it from
3132-650: Is co-extensive with uses of writing and the elaboration of activity systems that give rise to and circulate writing. Individual motivations for writing include improvised additional capacity for the limitations of human memory (e.g. to-do lists , recipes , reminders, logbooks , maps , the proper sequence for a complicated task or important ritual ), dissemination of ideas and coordination (e.g. essays , monographs , broadsides , plans , petitions , or manifestos ), creativity and storytelling , maintaining kinship and other social networks, business correspondence regarding goods and services, and life writing (e.g.
3240-413: Is cut to a hexagonal height of 6 mm ( 1 ⁄ 4 in), but the outer diameter is slightly larger (about 7 mm or 9 ⁄ 32 in) A standard, "#2", hexagonal pencil is 19 cm (7.5 in) long. On 3 September 2007, Ashrita Furman unveiled his giant US$ 20,000 pencil – 23 metres (76 ft) long, 8,200 kilograms (18,000 lb) with over 2,000 kilograms (4,500 lb) for
3348-477: Is descended from the Libyco-Berber script , which is assumed to be of Phoenician origin. In the history of writing , religious texts or writing have played a special role. For example, some religious text compilations have been some of the earliest popular texts, or even the only written texts in some languages, and in some cases are still highly popular around the world. The first books printed widely using
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3456-402: Is expended, a round shot still has enough momentum to knock men over and cause gruesome injury. Because such instances often did not leave visible marks, this initially gave rise to the theory that even in the case of a near-miss, the so-called " wind of a ball " could cause internal injury or concussion , often with fatal results. The actual explanation for these cases, however, turned out to be
3564-509: Is explicitly directed toward the learning of writing, but much is focused more on subject learning. Writing systems may be broadly classified according to what units of language are represented by its symbols: alphabets and syllabaries generally represent a language's sounds of speech ( phonemes and syllables respectively)—while logographies represent a language's units of meaning ( words or morphemes ), though these are still associated by readers with their given pronunciations in
3672-463: Is graded HB . This designation, in the form "H. B.", was in use at least as early as 1814. Softer or harder pencil grades were described by a sequence or successive Bs or Hs such as BB and BBB for successively softer leads, and HH and HHH for successively harder ones. The Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth pencil manufacturers claim to have first used the HB designations, with H standing for Hardtmuth, B for
3780-517: Is not an independent glyph for each syllable. While research into the development of writing during the Neolithic is ongoing, the current consensus is that it first evolved from economic necessity in the ancient Near East . Writing most likely began as a consequence of political expansion in ancient cultures, which needed reliable means for transmitting information, maintaining financial accounts, keeping historical records, and similar activities. Around
3888-508: Is not only the main deliverable but also the mode of work itself. Even in occupations not typically associated with writing, routine records management has most employees writing at least some of the time. Some professions are typically associated with writing, such as literary authors, journalists, and technical writers, but writing is pervasive in most modern forms of work, civic participation, household management, and leisure activities. Writing permeates everyday commerce. For example, in
3996-465: Is still mandated by law for voting paper ballots in elections and referendums. Eye liner pencils are used for make-up. Unlike traditional copying pencils, eyeliner pencils usually contain non-toxic dyes. Unlike wax-based colored pencils, the erasable variants can be easily erased. Their main use is in sketching, where the objective is to create an outline using the same color that other media (such as wax pencils, or watercolor paints) would fill or when
4104-699: Is typically published as articles in journals or within book-length monographs . Arguments, experiments, observational data, and other evidence collated in the course of research is represented in writing, and serves as the basis for later work. Data collection and drafting of manuscripts may be supported by grants, which usually require proposals establishing the value of such work and the need for funding. The data and procedures are also typically collected in lab notebooks or other preliminary files. Preprints of potential publications may also be presented at academic or disciplinary conferences or on publicly accessible web servers to gain peer feedback and build interest in
4212-421: Is usually still considered incomplete at this point. Each pencil has a shoulder cut on one end of the pencil to allow for a metal ferrule to be secured onto the wood. A rubber plug is then inserted into the ferrule for a functioning eraser on the end of the pencil. Graphite pencils are made of a mixture of clay and graphite and their darkness varies from black to light grey. A higher amount of clay added to
4320-501: The Narmer Palette , dating to c. 3100 BC , and several recent discoveries that may be slightly older, though these glyphs were based on a much older artistic rather than written tradition. The hieroglyphic script was logographic with phonetic adjuncts that included an effective alphabet . The world's oldest deciphered sentence was found on a seal impression found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen at Abydos, which dates from
4428-481: The Sumerian language and Egyptian hieroglyphs are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of ancestral proto-writing systems between 3400 and 3300 BC, with earliest coherent texts from c. 2600 BC . It is generally agreed that Sumerian writing was an independent invention; however, it is debated whether Egyptian writing was developed completely independently of Sumerian, or
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4536-546: The Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Reckendorfer, declaring the patent invalid. Historian Henry Petroski notes that while ever more efficient means of mass production of pencils has driven the replacement cost of a pencil down, before this people would continue to use even the stub of a pencil. For those who did not feel comfortable using a stub, pencil extenders were sold. These devices function something like
4644-544: The development of writing were driven by pragmatic exigencies like keeping track of produce and other wealth, recording history , maintaining culture , codifying knowledge through curricula and lists of texts deemed to contain foundational knowledge (e.g. The Canon of Medicine ) or artistic value (e.g. the literary canon ), organizing and governing societies through texts including legal codes , census records, contracts , deeds of ownership, taxation , trade agreements , and treaties . As Charles Bazerman explains,
4752-422: The printing press were bibles . Such texts enabled rapid spread and maintenance of societal cohesion, collective identity , motivations, justifications and beliefs that e.g. notably historically supported or enabled large-scale warfare between modern humans . Round shot A round shot (also called solid shot or simply ball ) is a solid spherical projectile without explosive charge, launched from
4860-467: The "marking of signs on stones, clay, paper, and now digital memories—each more portable and rapidly traveling than the previous—provided means for increasingly coordinated and extended action as well as memory across larger groups of people over time and space." For example, around the 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration in Mesopotamia outgrew human memory, and writing became
4968-399: The 16th century. Around 1560, an Italian couple named Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti made what are likely the first blueprints for the modern, wood-encased carpentry pencil . Their version was a flat, oval, more compact type of pencil. Their concept involved the hollowing out of a stick of juniper wood. Shortly thereafter, a superior technique was discovered: two wooden halves were carved,
5076-467: The 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration outgrew the power of memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form. The invention of the first writing systems is roughly contemporary with the emergence of civilisations and the beginning of the Bronze Age during the late 4th millennium BC. Cuneiform used to write
5184-430: The 7th millennium BC, but whether or not these symbols are related to the characters of the later oracle bone script is disputed. Over the centuries, three distinct Elamite scripts developed. Proto-Elamite is the oldest known writing system from Iran. In use only briefly ( c. 3200 – c. 2900 BC ), clay tablets with Proto-Elamite writing have been found at different sites across Iran, with
5292-639: The Second Dynasty (28th or 27th century BC). There are around 800 hieroglyphs dating back to the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom Eras. By the Greco-Roman period, there are more than 5,000. Writing was very important in maintaining the Egyptian empire , and literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of scribes . Only people from certain backgrounds were allowed to train to become scribes, in
5400-597: The adoption of Aramaic as the lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BC), Old Aramaic was also adapted to Mesopotamian cuneiform. The last cuneiform scripts in Akkadian discovered thus far date from the 1st century AD. The earliest known hieroglyphs are about 5,200 years old, such as the clay labels of a Predynastic ruler called "Scorpion I" (Naqada IIIA period, c. 32nd century BC ) recovered at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) in 1998 or
5508-581: The advancement of their own research, does it become codified as contingently reliable knowledge. News and news reporting are central to citizen engagement and knowledge of many spheres of activity people may be interested in about the state of their community, including the actions and integrity of their governments and government officials, economic trends, natural disasters and responses to them, international geopolitical events, including conflicts, but also sports, entertainment, books, and other leisure activities. While news and newspapers have grown rapidly from
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#17330851310605616-626: The capital of Turkmenistan , revealed an inscription on a piece of stone that was used as a stamp seal. The earliest surviving examples of writing in China—inscriptions on oracle bones , usually tortoise plastrons and ox scapulae which were used for divination—date from around 1200 BC, during the Late Shang period. A small number of bronze inscriptions from the same period have also survived. In 2003, archaeologists reported discoveries of isolated tortoise-shell carvings dating back to
5724-526: The closest predecessor to the pencil was silverpoint or leadpoint until in 1565 (some sources say as early as 1500), a large deposit of graphite was discovered on the approach to Grey Knotts from the hamlet of Seathwaite in Borrowdale parish , Cumbria , England. This particular deposit of graphite was extremely pure and solid, and it could easily be sawn into sticks. It remains the only large-scale deposit of graphite ever found in this solid form. Chemistry
5832-437: The company's location of Budějovice , and F for Franz Hardtmuth, who was responsible for technological improvements in pencil manufacture. As of 2021, a set of pencils ranging from a very soft, black-marking pencil to a very hard, light-marking pencil usually ranges from softest to hardest as follows: Writing Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of human language . A writing system uses
5940-559: The container's surface, one picture for each instance of the token inside. They next dispensed with the tokens, relying solely on symbols for the tokens, drawn on clay surfaces. To avoid making a picture for each instance of the same object (for example: 100 pictures of a hat to represent 100 hats), they counted the objects by using various small marks. In this way the Sumerians added "a system for enumerating objects to their incipient system of symbols". The original Mesopotamian writing system
6048-520: The corresponding spoken language. A logography is written using logograms —written characters which represent individual words or morphemes . For example, in Mayan, the glyph for "fin", pronounced ka , was also used to represent the syllable ka whenever the pronunciation of a logogram needed to be indicated. Many logograms have an ideographic component (Chinese "radicals", hieroglyphic "determiners"). In Chinese, about 90% of characters are compounds of
6156-540: The course of an afternoon, a wholesaler might receive a written inquiry about the availability of a product line, then communicate with suppliers and fabricators through work orders and purchase agreements, correspond via email to affirm shipping availability with a drayage company, write an invoice, and request proof of receipt in the form of a written signature. At a much larger scale, modern systems of finances, banking, and business rest on many forms of written documents—including written regulations, policies, and procedures;
6264-785: The creation of reports and other monitoring documents to make, evaluate, and provide accountability for decisions and operations; the creation and maintenance of records; internal written communications within departments to coordinate work; written communications that comprise work products presented to other departments and to clients; and external communications to clients and the public. Business and financial organizations also rely on many written legal documents, such as contracts, reports to government agencies, tax records, and accounting reports. Financial institutions and markets that hold, transmit, trade, insure, or regulate holdings for clients or other institutions are particularly dependent on written records (though now often in digital form) to maintain
6372-772: The darkness and manufacturer. They produce a fuller black than graphite pencils, are smoother than charcoal, and have minimal dust and smudging. They also blend very well, much like charcoal. Colored pencils , or pencil crayons, have wax-like cores with pigment and other fillers. Several colors are sometimes blended together. Grease pencils can write on virtually any surface (including glass, plastic, metal and photographs). The most commonly found grease pencils are encased in paper (Berol and Sanford Peel-off), but they can also be encased in wood (Staedtler Omnichrom). Watercolor pencils are designed for use with watercolor techniques. Their cores can be diluted by water. The pencils can be used by themselves for sharp, bold lines. Strokes made by
6480-482: The degree to which letters of an alphabet correspond to phonemes of a language varies greatly from one language to another and even within a single language. In most of the alphabets of the Middle East, it is usually only the consonants of a word that are written, although vowels may be indicated by the addition of various diacritical marks. Writing systems based primarily on writing just consonants phonemes date back to
6588-563: The earliest). Linear B , the writing system of the Mycenaean Greeks , has been deciphered while Linear A has yet to be deciphered. The sequence and the geographical spread of the three overlapping, but distinct writing systems can be summarized as follows (beginning date refers to first attestations, the assumed origins of all scripts lie further back in the past): Cretan hieroglyphs were used in Crete from c. 1625 to 1500 BC; Linear A
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#17330851310606696-433: The eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, the changing economics and ability to produce and distribute news have brought about radical and rapid challenges to journalism and the consequent organization of citizen knowledge and engagement. These changes have also created challenges for journalism ethics that have been developed over the past century. Formal education is the social context most strongly associated with
6804-651: The end of the nineteenth century, over 240,000 pencils were used each day in the US. The favoured timber for pencils was Red Cedar as it was aromatic and did not splinter when sharpened. In the early twentieth century supplies of Red Cedar were dwindling so that pencil manufacturers were forced to recycle the wood from cedar fences and barns to maintain supply. One effect of this was that "during World War II rotary pencil sharpeners were outlawed in Britain because they wasted so much scarce lead and wood, and pencils had to be sharpened in
6912-440: The fact that they may never need sharpening. Lead types are based on grade and size; with standard sizes being 2.00 mm (0.079 in), 1.40 mm (0.055 in), 1.00 mm (0.039 in), 0.70 mm (0.028 in), 0.50 mm (0.020 in), 0.35 mm (0.014 in), 0.25 mm (0.0098 in), 0.18 mm (0.0071 in), and 0.13 mm (0.0051 in) ( ISO 9175-1 )—the 0.90 mm (0.035 in) size
7020-486: The fake gunpowder explosions representing roundshot in movies, roundshot was more like a bouncing bowling ball that would not stop after the initial impact, but continue and tear through anything in its path. It could bounce when it hit the ground, striking men at each bounce. The casualties from round shot were extremely gory; when fired directly into an advancing column, a cannonball was capable of passing straight through up to forty men . Even when most of its kinetic energy
7128-509: The graphite centre – after three weeks of creation in August 2007 as a birthday gift for teacher Sri Chinmoy . It is longer than the 20-metre (65 ft) pencil outside the Malaysia HQ of stationers Faber-Castell. Mechanical pencils use mechanical methods to push lead through a hole at the end. These can be divided into two groups: with propelling pencils an internal mechanism is employed to push
7236-445: The help of a rubric, copy-editing, and helping translation . Writing technologies from different eras coexist easily in many homes and workplaces. During the course of a day or even a single episode of writing, for example, a writer might instinctively switch among a pencil, a touchscreen, a text-editor, a whiteboard, a legal pad, and adhesive notes as different purposes arise. As human societies emerged, collective motivations for
7344-612: The hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. Such systems are called abjads , derived from the Arabic word for 'alphabet', or consonantaries . In most of the alphabets of India and Southeast Asia , vowels are indicated through diacritics or modification of the shape of the consonant. These are called abugidas . Some abugidas, such as Geʽez and the Canadian Aboriginal syllabics , are learned by children as syllabaries, and so are often called "syllabics". However, unlike true syllabaries, there
7452-595: The integrity of their roles. Many modern systems of government are organized and sanctified through written constitutions at the national and sometimes state or other organizational levels. Written rules and procedures typically guide the operations of the various branches, departments, and other bodies of government, which regularly produce reports and other documents as work products and to account for their actions. In addition to legislatures that draft and pass laws, these laws are administered by an executive branch , which can present further written regulations specifying
7560-408: The intended pencil hardness (lower proportions of clay makes the core softer), and the amount of time spent on grinding the mixture determines the quality of the lead. The mixture is then shaped into long spaghetti -like strings, straightened, dried, cut, and then tempered in a kiln . The resulting strings are dipped in oil or molten wax, which seeps into the tiny holes of the material and allows for
7668-486: The lack of casing allows for covering larger spaces more easily, creating different effects, and providing greater economy as the entirety of the pencil is used. They are available in the same darkness range as wood-encased graphite pencils. Liquid graphite pencils are pencils that write like pens . The technology was first invented in 1955 by Scripto and Parker Pens . Scripto's liquid graphite formula came out about three months before Parker's liquid lead formula. To avoid
7776-403: The late 19th century for press copying and as a practical substitute for fountain pens. Their markings are often visually indistinguishable from those of standard graphite pencils, but when moistened their markings dissolve into a coloured ink, which is then pressed into another piece of paper. They were widely used until the mid-20th century when ball pens slowly replaced them. In Italy their use
7884-418: The laws and how they are carried out. Governments at different levels also typically maintain written records on citizens concerning identities, life events such as births, deaths, marriages, and divorces, the granting of licenses for controlled activities, criminal charges, traffic offenses, and other penalties small and large, and tax liability and payments. Research undertaken in academic disciplines
7992-445: The lead out from an internal compartment, while clutch pencils merely hold the lead in place (the lead is extended by releasing it and allowing some external force, usually gravity, to pull it out of the body). The erasers (sometimes replaced by a sharpener on pencils with larger lead sizes) are also removable (and thus replaceable), and usually cover a place to store replacement leads. Mechanical pencils are popular for their longevity and
8100-441: The learning of writing, and students may carry these particular associations long after leaving school. Alongside the writing that students read (in the forms of textbooks, assigned books, and other instructional materials as well as self-selected books) students do much writing within schools at all levels, on subject exams, in essays, in taking notes, in doing homework, and in formative and summative assessments . Some of this
8208-567: The majority having been excavated at Susa , an ancient city located east of the Tigris and between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers. The Proto-Elamite script is thought to have developed from early cuneiform (proto-cuneiform). The Proto-Elamite script consists of more than 1,000 signs and is thought to be partly logographic . Linear Elamite is a writing system attested in a few monumental inscriptions in Iran. It
8316-676: The marked surface. Most pencil cores are made of graphite powder mixed with a clay binder. Graphite pencils (traditionally known as "lead pencils") produce grey or black marks that are easily erased , but otherwise resistant to moisture , most solvents , ultraviolet radiation and natural aging. Other types of pencil cores, such as those of charcoal , are mainly used for drawing and sketching . Coloured pencils are sometimes used by teachers or editors to correct submitted texts , but are typically regarded as art supplies, especially those with cores made from wax-based binders that tend to smear when erasers are applied to them. Grease pencils have
8424-400: The more conservative manner – with knives." It was soon discovered that incense cedar , when dyed and perfumed to resemble Red Cedar, was a suitable alternative. Most pencils today are made from this timber, which is grown in managed forests. Over 14 billion pencils are manufactured worldwide annually. Less popular alternatives to cedar include basswood and alder . In Southeast Asia,
8532-534: The moulds for cannonballs ; the mines were taken over by the Crown and were guarded. When sufficient stores of graphite had been accumulated, the mines were flooded to prevent theft until more was required. The usefulness of graphite for pencils was discovered as well, but graphite for pencils had to be smuggled. Because graphite is soft, it requires some form of encasement . Graphite sticks were initially wrapped in string or sheepskin for stability. England would enjoy
8640-645: The objective is to scan the color sketch. Some animators prefer erasable color pencils as opposed to graphite pencils because they do not smudge as easily, and the different colors allow for better separation of objects in the sketch. Copy-editors find them useful too as markings stand out more than those of graphite, but can be erased. Also known as non-photo blue pencils, the non-reproducing types make marks that are not reproducible by photocopiers (examples include "Copy-not" by Sanford and "Mars Non-photo" by Staedtler) or by whiteprint copiers (such as "Mars Non-Print" by Staedtler). Stenographer 's pencils, also known as
8748-570: The one that appears to have been best developed, and the only one to be deciphered, is the Maya script . The earliest inscription identified as Maya dates to the 3rd century BC. Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs, somewhat similar in function to modern Japanese writing. In 2001, archaeologists discovered that there was a civilization in Central Asia that used writing c. 2000 BC . An excavation near Ashgabat ,
8856-526: The pencil can also be saturated with water and spread with brushes. Carpenter's pencils are pencils that have two main properties: their shape prevents them from rolling, and their graphite is strong. The oldest surviving pencil is a German carpenter's pencil dating from the 17th Century and now in the Faber-Castell collection. Copying pencils (or indelible pencils) are graphite pencils with an added dye that creates an indelible mark. They were invented in
8964-459: The pencil makes it harder, leaving lighter marks. There is a wide range of grades available, mainly for artists who are interested in creating a full range of tones from light grey to black. Engineers prefer harder pencils which allow for a greater control in the shape of the lead. Manufacturers distinguish their pencils by grading them, but there is no common standard. Two pencils of the same grade but different manufacturers will not necessarily make
9072-411: The pencil was sucked or chewed. The lead of the pencil is a mix of finely ground graphite and clay powders. Before the two substances are mixed, they are separately cleaned of foreign matter and dried in a manner that creates large square cakes. Once the cakes have fully dried, the graphite and the clay squares are mixed together using water. The amount of clay content added to the graphite depends on
9180-447: The phonetic Hangul system is mainly used. Other logographic systems include cuneiform and Maya . A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables , typically a consonant followed by a vowel, or just a vowel alone. In some scripts more complex syllables (such as consonant-vowel-consonant, or consonant-consonant-vowel) may have dedicated glyphs. Phonetically similar syllables are not written similarly. For instance,
9288-446: The script to be logo-syllabic (typically syllabic scripts have about 50–100 signs whereas logographic scripts have a very large number of principal signs). Several scholars maintain that structural analysis indicates an agglutinative language underlies the script. The Proto-Sinaitic script, in which Proto-Canaanite is believed to have been first written, is attested as far back as the 19th century BC. The Phoenician writing system
9396-461: The service of temple, pharaonic, and military authorities. The hieroglyph system was always difficult to learn, but in later centuries was purposely made even more so, as this preserved the scribes' status. The world's oldest known alphabet appears to have been developed by Canaanite turquoise miners in the Sinai desert around the mid-19th century BC. Around 30 crude inscriptions have been found at
9504-400: The shot to "rattle" down the gun barrel and leave the barrel at an angle, unless wadding or a discarding sabot is used. This difference in shot and bore diameter is called "windage". Round shot has been totally replaced by modern shells . Round shot is used in historical recreations and historical replica weapons. In the 1860s, some round shots were equipped with winglets to benefit from
9612-401: The smooth writing ability of the pencil. A juniper or incense-cedar plank with several long parallel grooves is cut to fashion a "slat," and the graphite/clay strings are inserted into the grooves. Another grooved plank is glued on top, and the whole assembly is then cut into individual pencils, which are then varnished or painted. Many pencils feature an eraser on the top and so the process
9720-501: The syllable "ka" may look nothing like the syllable "ki", nor will syllables with the same vowels be similar. Syllabaries are best suited to languages with a relatively simple syllable structure, such as Japanese. Other languages that use syllabic writing include Mycenaean Greek ( Linear B ), Cherokee , the Ndjuka creole language of Suriname , and the Vai language of Liberia . An alphabet
9828-701: The term cuneiform ), at first only for logograms , but by the 29th century BC also for phonetic elements. Around 2700 BC, cuneiform began to represent syllables of spoken Sumerian. About that time, Mesopotamian cuneiform became a general purpose writing system for logograms, syllables, and numbers. This script was adapted to another Mesopotamian language, the East Semitic Akkadian ( Assyrian and Babylonian ) c. 2600 BC , and then to others such as Elamite , Hattian , Hurrian and Hittite . Scripts similar in appearance to this writing system include those for Ugaritic and Old Persian . With
9936-474: The toughness and elasticity of the human skin . When attacking wooden ships or land structures that would be damaged by fire, the cannonball could be heated to red hot. This was called a " heated shot ". (On the shot called "the single deadliest cannon shot in American history", see Negro Fort .) Round shot has the disadvantage of not being tightly fitted into the bore (to do so would cause jamming). This causes
10044-524: The ways in which writers have framed the experience of writing with such tools as compared with the pen or pencil. Advancements in natural language processing and natural language generation have resulted in software capable of producing certain forms of formulaic writing (e.g., weather forecasts and brief sports reporting) without the direct involvement of humans after initial configuration or, more commonly, to be used to support writing processes such as generating initial drafts, producing feedback with
10152-508: The wood Jelutong may be used to create pencils (though the use of this rainforest species is controversial). Environmentalists prefer the use of Pulai – another wood native to the region in pencil manufacturing. On 30 March 1858, Hymen Lipman received the first patent for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil. In 1862, Lipman sold his patent to Joseph Reckendorfer for $ 100,000, who went on to sue pencil manufacturer Faber-Castell for infringement . In Reckendorfer v. Faber (1875),
10260-479: The work. Prior to official publication, these documents are typically read and evaluated by peer review from appropriate experts, who determine whether the work is of sufficient value and quality to be published. Publication does not establish the claims or findings of work as being authoritatively true, only that they are worth the attention of other specialists. As the work appears in review articles, handbooks, textbooks, or other aggregations, and others cite it in
10368-485: The writing end of the body and re-inserting it into the open-ended bottom of the body, thereby pushing a new tip to the top. Invented by Harold Grossman for the Empire Pencil Company in 1967, plastic pencils were subsequently improved upon by Arthur D. Little for Empire from 1969 through the early 1970s; the plastic pencil was commercialised by Empire as the "EPCON" Pencil. These pencils were co-extruded, extruding
10476-620: Was Eberhard Faber , which built a factory in New York and became the leader in pencil production. Joseph Dixon , an inventor and entrepreneur involved with the Tantiusques graphite mine in Sturbridge , Massachusetts, developed a means to mass-produce pencils. By 1870, The Joseph Dixon Crucible Company was the world's largest dealer and consumer of graphite and later became the contemporary Dixon Ticonderoga pencil and art supplies company. By
10584-623: Was a case of cultural diffusion . Archaeologist Denise Schmandt-Besserat determined the link between previously uncategorized clay "tokens", the oldest of which have been found in the Zagros region of Iran, and cuneiform, the first known writing. Around 8000 BC, Mesopotamians began using clay tokens to count their agricultural and manufactured goods. Later they began placing these tokens inside large, hollow clay containers (bulla, or globular envelopes) which were then sealed. The quantity of tokens in each container came to be expressed by impressing, on
10692-583: Was a method of compressing graphite powder into solid graphite thus allowing the waste from sawing to be reused. American colonists imported pencils from Europe until after the American Revolution . Benjamin Franklin advertised pencils for sale in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1729, and George Washington used a three-inch (7.5 cm) pencil when he surveyed the Ohio Country in 1762. William Munroe ,
10800-505: Was adapted from the Proto-Canaanite script sometime before the 14th century BC, which in turn borrowed principles of representing phonetic information from Egyptian hieroglyphs . This writing system was an odd sort of syllabary in which only consonants are represented. This script was adapted by the Greeks , who adapted certain consonantal signs to represent their vowels. The Cumae alphabet ,
10908-491: Was derived c. 3200 BC from this method of keeping accounts. By the end of the 4th millennium BC, the Mesopotamians were using a triangular-shaped stylus pressed into soft clay to record numbers. This system was gradually augmented with using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted by means of pictographs . Round and sharp styluses were gradually replaced for writing by wedge-shaped styluses (hence
11016-703: Was in its infancy and the substance was thought to be a form of lead . Consequently, it was called plumbago (Latin for "lead ore "). Because the pencil core is still referred to as "lead", or "a lead", many people have the misconception that the graphite in the pencil is lead, and the black core of pencils is still referred to as lead , even though it never contained the element lead. The words for pencil in German ( Bleistift ), Irish ( peann luaidhe ), Arabic (قلم رصاص qalam raṣāṣ ), and some other languages literally mean lead pen . The value of graphite would soon be realised to be enormous, mainly because it could be used to line
11124-608: Was not until the 12th to 9th centuries, however, that the alphabet took hold and became widely used. The Cascajal Block , a stone slab with 3,000-year-old proto-writing, was discovered in the Mexican state of Veracruz and is an example of the oldest script in the Western Hemisphere, preceding the oldest Zapotec writing by approximately 500 years. It is thought to be Olmec . Of several pre-Columbian scripts in Mesoamerica ,
11232-406: Was painstakingly slow, and in the neighbouring town of Acton , a pencil mill owner named Ebenezer Wood set out to automate the process at his own pencil mill located at Nashoba Brook . He used the first circular saw in pencil production. He constructed the first of the hexagon- and octagon-shaped wooden casings. Ebenezer did not patent his invention and shared his techniques with anyone. One of those
11340-533: Was unable to import the pure graphite sticks from the British Grey Knotts mines – the only known source in the world. France was also unable to import the inferior German graphite pencil substitute. It took the efforts of an officer in Napoleon 's army to change this. In 1795, Nicolas-Jacques Conté discovered a method of mixing powdered graphite with clay and forming the mixture into rods that were then fired in
11448-417: Was used for a very brief period during the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. It is often claimed that Linear Elamite is a syllabic writing system derived from Proto-Elamite, although this cannot be proven since Linear-Elamite has not been deciphered. Several scholars have attempted to decipher the script, most notably Walther Hinz [ de ] and Piero Meriggi . The Elamite cuneiform script
11556-501: Was used from about 2500 to 331 BC, and was adapted from the Akkadian cuneiform. At any given point within this period, the Elamite cuneiform script consisted of about 130 symbols, and over this entire period only 206 total signs were used. This is far fewer than most other cuneiform scripts. Cretan hieroglyphs are found on artifacts of Crete (early-to-mid-2nd millennium BC, MM I to MM III, overlapping with Linear A from MM IIA at
11664-647: Was used in the Aegean Islands ( Kea , Kythera , Melos , Thera ), and the Greek mainland ( Laconia ) from c. 18th century to 1450 BC; and Linear B was used in Crete ( Knossos ), and mainland ( Pylos , Mycenae , Thebes , Tiryns ) from c. 1375 to 1200 BC. Indus script refers to short strings of symbols associated with the Indus Valley Civilization (which spanned modern-day Pakistan and North India ) used between 2600 and 1900 BC. Despite attempts at decipherments and claims, it
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