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Some time before 1565 (some sources say as early as 1500), an enormous deposit of graphite was discovered on the approach to Grey Knotts from the hamlet of Seathwaite in Borrowdale parish, Cumbria, England. The locals found that it was very useful for marking sheep. This particular deposit of graphite was extremely pure and solid, and it could easily be sawn into sticks.

During the Napoleonic Wars, German and English pencils were not available for the French were unable to import the graphite sticks. So in 1795, N. J. Conte (Nicholas Jacques Conté, an officer in Napoleon's army) discovered a method of mixing powdered graphite with clay and forming the mixture into rods that were then fired in a kiln. By varying the ratio of graphite to clay, the hardness of the graphite rod could also be varied.

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15y ago

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