Gass. Book- A. W. FABER. Cf)e 3^enctUiLeatj JHines of Asiatic g^itjerta, I. p. ALIBERT. A HISTORICAL SKETCH. 1761-1861. 1865. 7 / ^./•T-r . lilllii' (Irs CivilviMiliiMislnnKMis iUt kdiii^l. liaycrisrhi'n Krone iMiil ill's kiiiiittL Wrilii'iistorileus mm heil. Micluol, ;?^^ T. P. ALTBERT. THE PENCIL-LEAD MINES OF ASIATIC SIBERIA. A. W. FABER. A HISTOPJCAL SKETCH. 17Gl-lSr.l. ; ; ; . ! ; A h 9r ¥ .-^ lilVK/lS/DE PuKSS: rnisTKn riy ii. o. iiorniirox Axn i-omi'aw. CA.vnnirxiF.. Siill ^l-S33^ The rapid progress made in the mechanical arts during tiie last fifty years, has brought within the reach of all classes of the present generation a host of contrivances, which, among our immediate ancestors, were either but little known, or else confined at least to the use of the wealthy few. Anionic these minor contrivances the Lead- o Pencil has won for itself an honorable place, both by its services in the past and its present usefulness. Few articles have contributed more to the spiead of the arts and sciences. Not one can be named so nearly imi- veisal in its daily use. Our very familiarity with it tends to make us regard it with indiflerence. Yet the history of its origin and the processes of its manufoc- ture are not without interest. Like most articles that depend for their exist- ence upon mechanical skill, the Lead-Pencil is entirely a product of modern times. The ancients knew not either the Lead-Pencil in its present form, or the use of lead in any shape for the purposes of art or of writing. It is not until the Middle Ay-es that we hear of lead being used lor either of these piu-poses ; nor is it then the article now made into pencils, but the iiutulUc lead, Vvhich dillers Irom the foniiei' in almost everything 1-3 except appearance. To this outward siniilaiity, how- ever, with the metallic load, the pencil-lead or black- lead owes its common name, — the scientific name being graphite. Its composition is a mixture of carbon with a small quantity of iron. The metallic lead was used, both by the ancients, and down to comparatively modern times, for ruling the parchment of manuscripts, and for this purpose was cast into sharp-edged disks, a shape which had the ad- vantage over every other, that it prevented the soft metal from being easily bent. This disk was called by the Eomans proedudal, and by the Greeks Ttapd/pa^og, whence our paragraph. « The first traces of drawings in lead are con- temporaneous with the earliest development of modern art. Mention is made of works by masters of the four- teenth (the Van Eycks especially) and fifteenth centu- ries (Memlink and others), which appear to have been produced by some pencil-like instrument on paper sur- faced with chalk. This style has been called nilrcr drawing, but without good reason, — unmixed silver, at least, being, on account of its hardness, entirely out of the question. At a later period, smooth boards covered with a preparation of calcined bone-dust seem to have been used in place of the chalk- paper, but without much success. What the Italians ol' the fourteenth, centiuy called stile, a pencil made of a mixture of metallic lead and tin, was, however, (juite frequently used at tliat time ; it had the great and distinctive advantage, that its marks could be partially, if not entirely, rubbed out with soft bread crumb.s. A portrait Irom life of \ Petrarch's Laura is known to have ))een thus taken ; and down even to the time of Michel Angelo this man- ner still remained in use, but seems never to have at- tained to any general acceptance. Both for writing and drawing the quill was then the main reliance. During the palmy days of Italian art the eager search after better and less imper- fect working materials resulted in the discovery and introduction of black and red chalks. Vasari, in speak- ing of an artist of the sixteenth century, coinmemls the versatility which enabled him to excel at tlie same time in the use of the stile, the (juill, and of both black and red chalk. But all these different materials were almost innnediately discarded on the discovery of the celebrated black-lead mines of Borrowdale, in the County of Cmu- berland, England, which took place during the reign ot Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1564, and was followed in the very next year by the luanul'acture of the first Lead-Pencils, substantially such as we use them at the present day. The lead being thus a product of English soil, and all other' facilities beiny; found at hand in the imlus- tiial activity of England, already then distinguished among nations, it was but natural, that the manufacture should remain, for some time at least, an exclusively English one. Its processes were, however, very simple. The lead, as it came from the mine, was sawed into thin slabs, and these again into long strips of the requi- site size, wdiich were without further preparation glued into the wood. It is not a little reuuukalde that these first pencils lemaiu to this day the best ever made, and c are not surpassed in delicacy or smoothness by any product of subsequent times. It is, in reality, this excel- lent quality, more even than the fact that they supplied a want so long and so urgently felt, that first established, and so long maintained, the extraordinary reputation enjoyed by the Cnmberland lead-pencils in the world of art. So important did this branch of industry soon become, that the Government thonght it necessary to prohibit the exportation of the lead, and that a regular black-lead market was established in London, where, on the first Monday of every month, sufficient lead was sold at auction to meet the supposed wants of the pen- cil manufacturers. The price averaged from 36 to 40 English shillings ($10 goldj per lb. avoirdnpois, but the finer qualities, according to Diifrenoy, were run up as high as 400 francs ($80 gold) per kilogramme (about 2 lb. avoirdupois); and although the mine never re- mained open longer than .six weeks in every year, yet the value of the yearly product is said to have reached c£40,(j00, — a much more considerable sum in those days than it now seems to us. So great and perhaps exaggerated was the value of the ore, that the mines on several occasions were attacked by organized ma- rauding expeditions li'om the neighboring mountains, and had to be protected by a large military force sent for the pin-pose by the authorities. Although the export of the lead had been entirely prohibited, and (he mine allowed to remain open only six Aveeks in the year, nevertheless, the con- tinued working for a eentuiv or more yraduallv dimin- ished and iinally exhau^ted tlie \ ield. until lor man_)' years past nothing has l)ec'n obtained but impure refuse. In the natural expectation that such would be the re- sult, and stimulated hy the extraordinary value of the product of the Cumberland mine, English manufac- turers and men of science have long since sought foi- Pencil-Lead in all parts of the world, and, indeed, dis- coveries have been made in Spain (at Ronda in Granada, near Malaga), in Ceylon, Greenland, California, France, Italy, in various parts of Germany, and more recently in North America, both in the New England States and in Canada, but none of them have furnished a material for pencil-making in the least to be compared to that from Borrowdale. Quite recently again a company was formed in England to continue these researches, but after several years of fruitless labor and an expenditure of about twenty thousand pounds sterling, the attempt has been abandoned. Long befoie the final exhaustion of the Bor- rowdale mine, processes were invented for cleaning and refining the impure refuse which had at first been cast aside, and the same processes were applied to the coarser and less valuable article obtained from other sources. The purified powder was pressed into a substantial cake which could be cut like the old native ore. But the material produced by tiiis process was found by expe- rience to be very deficient in strength, and otherwise imperfect. A variety of ingredients were then tried, in the hope that by cotnbining them with the finely pow- dered lead, the necessary consistency might be' obtained without detracting from its writing qualities. Glue, isinglass, gum arable, and almost every other gum, were tried successively, but in vain. The same was done with 8- iilmost all the liighh' fusible metals, notably ■with anti- mony, which at first promised well, but failed entirely. The mixture with 30 to 40 per eent, of sulphur came nearest to being a success ; but even that made a very bi'ittle composition, and the marks always remained faint. It was not mitil the year 1795 tliat the dis- covery was made upon which the entire present Pencil manufacture is based. It was in France, where industry was progressing with rapid strides imder the recent removal of old and obsolete restrictions, and where this branch of manufacture had then been but just intro- duced, that it was first suggested to mix the powdered and purified lead with cJa^. The snggestion was a most happy one, and the process at once proved a complete success. It not only restored to the powdered lead the necessary consistency, without materially diminishing its writing qualities, but was soon found to furnish also the means of making a lead of every degree of hardness or softness, — a most desirable result, Avhicli had never been attaina])le even with the best native Cumberland lead. Though the new jn'ocess added to the complications of manufacture, it was, nevertheless, more economical, and admitted of the use of the inferior qualities of lead, which liad already then and have been since discovered in a variety of localities, thus offering a combination of .xo many advantages, that it speedily superseded all the processes fornuMiy in use. Although at tl\e present day elaborated iuio a system of perfection scarcely recog- nizable as the offspring of the clumsy attempts of the first inventor, it remains in principle essentially unal- tered. The lead, which comes from the different mines 9 in every imaginiiblo quality, is CcarefuU}' sorted, crushed, and, by a well-known process of washing or sluicing, freed from all impurities, and separated into different degrees of fineness. The clay is submitted to a some- what similar treatment. These two essential raw mate- I'ials are then spread out in shallow pans, and dried at a low temperature. They are next mixed in the requisite proportions, which are subject to constant variation according to the quality of each, and tlie kind of goods designed to manufacture. Tlie mixture is then anew wetted, and ground in heavy iron mills for many hours at a time, the mills working day and night. After grinding, it is again repeatedly dried and ground anew. When the requisite degree of fineness and evenness is attained, the mass passes into the hands of skilful work- men, who knead it like dough into a cake of the requi- site consistency. This cake is placed in a cast-iron cyl- inder, and by a severe but slow pressure is squeezed through a small hole at the bottom, from which it issues in the shape of a continuous thread, coiling itself up like a rope on a board below. This continuous thread is none other tlian the lead which is afterwards put into wood to make the pencil. At this stage, however, it is still somewhat soft and elastic. It is now straightened out, cut in the requisite lengths, and laid close together in layers, kept in their places and prevented from warp- ing by a slight pressure. It is then dried in a moderate temperature, and, when perfectly dry, packed in cruci- bles hermetically sealed, and submitted to a high heat in ovens of a peculiar construction. The lead is now finished, with the exception of the trying, whicii is the most responsible operation, 10 and requires the greatest skill, care, and conscientious- ness. To no one but to the manufacturer himself, avIio alone can appreciate the value of his reputation, can this test be safely intrusted, as no amount of care and watchfulness can at all times secure correct results in processes so complicated. After trying, the finished lead is ready for the wood. This is chiefly cedar-wood, — none other having been found that possesses in the same degree the two essential qualities of extreme fineness of grain, and perfect softness under the knife. The immense blocks of cedar, the best of wliich comes from Florida, are cut up into small strips of the length, and a little more than half the thickness of a pencil ; the groove, of the size of the lead, is cut into them with a plane, the lead glued in, a similar strip of wood glued over it, and the pencil is to all intents and piu'poses finished. It still, however, has to undergo all that large variety of processes, which change it froni a rough, square stick covered with glue, into the smooth, polished, rounded or cornered, stamped, gilt, headed, and. in fiict, completed article, which every one handles with pleas- ure and satisfaction, without pausing to consider how many industrious pairs of hands have contributed to its production. To any one familiar with the leading charac- teristics of the principal modern nations, even this slight and imperfect description will ani]»ly explain why the Pencil manufactiu'e, beginning in Englanil, and iui- proved in France, should have made its final home in Cieiiuany. It is a manufactuie in wliich success dt'pends preeminently upon cuustiiut watchfulne.-2 * closed sufficient land for ii little farm at the foot of the luoiintain, in order to raise the most necessary produce ; he built one hut after another for the increased num- ber of his workmen, and gradually gathered around him a little colony with whose aid he patiently peise- vered in his enterprise. After seven years of laboi', and after blasting out and bringing to the surface hun- dreds of tons of the granite rock, and immense quan- tities of inferior and impure lead, resembling exactly the refuse from the Borrowdale Mines, he at last had the satisfaction of disclosing an imbroken layer of the purest and most superb graphiie, from which solid pieces, weighing eighty pounds and more, could readily be taken. The attention of the ever-watchful Russian Government was soon directed to his undertaking. Count Mourjiwiew Amursky, Governor-General of the Province of Irkutsk, encouraged and aided him by many marks of special favor. On proceeding to St. Petersburg, he was most graciously received by the Grand Duke, heir to the throne, and by the Emperor himself. By order of his Majesty he was presented with a silver medal, and decorated with the ribbon of the Order of Saint Stanislaus. The Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, to whom the samples of his graphite were submitted lor examination, re- turned the following report : — [iRANSLATlON.] Tlic uiitlersiorned, members of the Committee of tlie Im- perial Academy of Fine Aits, after liaviiiy examined the sam- ples submitted to us of tlie native <;ra|iliite tliseo\eied in Siberia, by Mr. Alibert, Iieieliy certily, tliat we find tliis ijra|iliite to l>e ..liiill mm '"liii iiiiii ills- vMH J(iHaiiiillitl«llPlilli»:r*!l'ri(riii>iliinii|iii:«i wiml'i of L'xoelleiit quality fur (Irawiiig-peucils of every kind, and tliat it n(jt only by far surjiasses that ustil at present in the manu- facture of all other lead-pencils, but is equal, nay, superior even, to that formerly obtained from the now exhausted mine of Bor- rowdale, the pencils made from which enjoy such a hip;h repu- tation throughout Euro]ie. PiiTERSisuRG, March 3d. 1850. Signed: Vice Pnaidntt : Count Theodore Foi.stoi. Merfors : Constaktine Toon. Biuni. Professors: A. Brui.ow, Baron Klodt, A. Markow, A. Stackenschn eider, Neif, O. Zavialoff, N. Outkin and Jordan. The Governor-General of the Baltic Provinces, Baron Lieven, and the President of the Imperial Geo- graphicid Society of Russiji, addressed him flattering let- ters, and Mount Batougol, the scene of his interesting lahors, was named in his honor Mount Alibert. Encouraged, but not satisfied, by these ac- knowledgments, Alibert next went to England. He vis- ited and carefully examined tlie exhausted Cumberland mines, and satisfied himself that no further supplies could be expected from them. He submitted samjjles of his lead to all the prominent pencil manufacturers tliere, and their verdict unanimously confirmed the re- port of the St. Petersburg Academy. Englishmen of science were much interested in his discoveries, and his collections of graphite, and other rare minerals, gatheren voyant la puissance des masses, la puret^ et la belle natinv des produits de la mine mise en exploitation par M. Alibert, qu'elle est destinee a prendre dans ie conunerce ennipcen la i)lafe que la mine de Borrowdale y occupait. " Rien ne nous met sur ia trace, quant a i)r{!sent, de^; ]>roc6d6s dont la nature s'est servie pour ia production dn dia- mant, quoique son ])]us pi'ociie voisiii, le siliciuui, ait 6t^ obtenn en cristanx, et si diverses circonstances permettent de soup^onncr la nianiere dont les masses de grapliite que la nature nous otliv ont 6t6 formees ; il n'en est pas inoins certain qu'une fabrication ^conomique du grapliite est loin de toute probability prdsente. " Dans ces circonstances, une decouverte et une ex- ploitation, deja assur(5e sur une grande «5clielle, qui mettent a la disposition de Y industiie et des arts le grapliite qui vient lem- l)lacer si -a propos pour lours besoins celui que ieur procurait 25 (lepuis si lonjrtemp? la mine de Borrowd.ile, sont, an plus Iiant degr(3, digues de rattention de la Societd d'Eiicoiirageinent. [traxslation.] " It is known that the celebrated mines of IJorrow- dalo, in Cumberland, now exhausted, but which fur many years supplied all Europe, have yielded profits of two millions and a half of francs per annum, and even quite recently of a million of francs per annum. "It now seems likely, judging by tiie solidity, volume, the purity, and the superb ipiality of the product of the mine worked by Mr. Alibert, that the latter is destined to fill the place formerly occupied in the conunerce of Europe by the Cumber- land mine. " Science is unable as yet to trace the processes by which Nature creates the diamond, but she has herself succeeded in producing in the crystallized state silicium, its next - door neighbor, as it were. So, too, we may form some conception of the manner in which the graphite that Nature furnishes us has been created ; but we must not therefrom infer that there is the least present prospect of our being able to produce it by artificial means. Hence an enterprise like that of j\lr. Alibert, which opportunely furnishes the arts and sciences with a material so long obtained from Borrowdale alone, is in the highest degree deserving of the attention of your Society." So general was the interest created by the important discoveries of Mr. Alibert, the boldness of his undertaking, and the beauty and value of the specimens and collections presented by him to the different muse- ums and learned societies, tliat he was further honored by the bestowal upon him of the Order of Charles 111. on the part of the Queen of Spain, and the Order of the Danebrog on the part of the King of Denmark ; and by the reception of letters from the King of Prus- sia, from the Pope Pius IX., from Cardinal Antonelli, 2G from the Secretary of State of Sweden and Norway, by order of the King, and from a number of other persons of rank and distinction in the world of science and art. Flattering and gratifying as these honors nat- urally were to Mr. Alibert, they alone were not, of course, a sufficient reward for eight years of incessant labor and the expenditure of a million of francs. That rewaid could oidy be obtained by rendering his discov- ery practically available, especially for the manufacture of pencils, for which purpose the lead is more valuable than for any other. He addressed to the house of A. W. Faber, as the maiuifacturer most generally known for the superior quality of his goods, a jjroposition to furnish him exclusively with the new Siberian lead, which offer, after a thorough examination of the new ma- terial, and after acquiring the conviction that it equalled in quality the best early product of the Cumberland mine, was promptly accepted. In 1856 a contract was formally entered into, and indorsed and sanctioned by the Russian Government, in accordance with which the Siberia^ lead, in so far as suitable for the manufacture of pencils, is furnished now and for all future time to the house of A. W. Faber alone. Alibert now returned to the mines, and pushed his labors with increased activity. The farther he opened up the mine, the more the quality and purity of the lead improved. Large blocks of unbroken surface, and bright like polished steel, were taken out, and after sev- eral years of additional labor, the first extensive ship- ment of over 100,000 lbs. of the precious material could be forwarded to the factory. The difficulties of transporta- •5 (> w o o o »^ o M td H W 27 tion were enormous. Carefully piicked in stout wooden boxes, part of it was carried on the backs of reindeer to the Anioor River, an enormous distance, over territory in which even the semblance of a road is unknown, and thence by sea to European ports; part travelled the entire distance overland, from the very centre of Asia to the little village of Stein, near NUrnberg, where, a century before, in the little cottage-house with its garden-lot on the Rednitz River, had been planted the first germ of this surely magnificent enterprise. Henceforth the success of the undertaking de- pended mainly upon the manufacturer. But in spite of his individual experience of nearly a quarter of a cen- tury, in spite of his familiarity with every process and every experiment tried by himself and others, it yet required five years more of incessant labor and study before he had successfully mastered the difficulties of the new material.' It was only in the year 1861 that he was able to place upon the market the first samples of pencils made with the new Siberian lead, — fifteen years after the fii'st discovery of the material itself in the mountain gorges of Siberia by Mr. Alibert, search- ing for gold. So slow was the growth of an enterprise, destined, it is hoped, to be permanent. It seems almost needless to say, that the suc- cess of the new Siberian Lead -Pencils was complete. At the London Exhibition of 1862, where they were first shown in quantities, they were awarded two medals in Class XXVllI. : one to Mr. Alibert, for " excellence of penc'/s made from natural Siberian graphite," and one to Mr. Faber, for "' black-lead pencils of excellent quality made from the newly discovered Siberian gra])h 28 ite." Mr. Alibert furthei" received a medal in Class I., '" for his meritorious development of the fine graphite of Irkutsk, his display of the same, and of the splendid block of nephrite." The Report of the International J ury of the same Exhibition contains the following : — "Since the Exhibition of 1851, where the de- ceased Mr. Brockedon displayed cakes of compressed dust of the Cumberland graphite, no progress has been made in the process of making lead-pencils. The Exhi- bition of 18G2, however, points out to manuflicturers of this article a new source of grajDhite, introduced to the public by Mr. J. P. Alibert, who has successfully ex- plored the mines of Siberia, and discovered a graphite possessing various degrees of hardness and of blackness suitable for the mauuflicture of pencils. Mr. A. \Y. Faber, of Bavaria, who has done so much to improve the mechanical processes of the pencil manufacture, has been the first to employ the new material, and already produces pencils of great excellence made of this min- eral." The French Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and Sciences, wlio had awarded Mr. Alibert a gold medal for the discovery of the lead, now pulj- lished in their " Proceedings " a Report froui the pen of Baron de Silvestre, Chairman of the Committee on Fine Arts, upon the pencils, from which the following passages are quoted : — [oKUaNAI,.] " I'.vins, 4 Miii, 18G4. "... Sans jn'^j'uger de I'aveiiir du grapliite, eu egurd aux a\;uitai;e.s iju'en pourroiit titer la science et I'industrie, nous poiivons dire ciue ce sont les beaux-arts qirintei-esse Je [ilus, au- jcnii-d hui, la decniiverte de M. Alibeit. On suit, en etfet, (jue HEAD OF SHAFT IN THE ALIBEKT MINE. 29 h, fabrication des crayons, fabrication