GRAPHITE PENCIL Dear friends,
I was arrangingpencils in the pen stand today morning. Nostalgic memories of using pencilscame to me. Use of pencils continues till today. Introduction of ball pointpens has slightly decreased the usage of pencils. There is no pencil standseparately, only pen stand to keep pens and pencils. What the pencil can do cannot be done by apen. But a pencil can do most of the things a pen can do. In this posting Imean pencil as Graphite pencil. Slate pencil is not touched. Sincerely, Gopala krishnan9-1-2022 1Pencil length Normal length of pencilis 17 centimetres. The wooden body can be either round or hexagonal. Hexagonalones are more preferred and give more grip. Graphite rod is in the centre whichwe make conical and write on paper. For use in the instrument box half sizepencil is used. Actually graphite rods are placed insidewood sleeves that are glued together. This makes pencils easier to use. Today'sgraphite writing cores are a mixture of graphite and clay. 2. Quality of graphite The quality ofgraphite rod changes with use. Ordinary writing has HB grade graphite. It willgive dark impressions. For drawing purposes depend on the requirement,different grades are there. Normally we got a set of pencils together fordrawing. 3. Additions to pencil. One importantaddition to pencil was fixing of a small cylindrical piece of rubber callederaser. Letters gone wrong could be erased using this rubber. Later dateseparate eraser came which could be conveniently hold with thumb and indexfinger. Still pencils fitted with rubber are in vogue. 4. Sharpening pencil In my boyhood daysmostly elders sharpened the writing end as graphite rod would decrease inlength due to tear on writing. Earlier date pencil sharpeners were not as goodas of today. If the quality of graphiteand quality of wood were not good, both used to break on sharpening. Nowadayswe get only quality pencils and quality sharpeners. Blades were also use d tosize wooden portion in a conical manner and sharpen the edge of graphite rod. 5. Standard V- writing on note books with pencils. I started usingpencil to write in note book from standard V. My use of pencil continues till today. I started writing with ink pen instandard VII. 6 Note Books without ruled lines Most of the notebooks earlier came without rules. Only exception was four line and two linenotes for English writing. We had to draw margins and write in straight linewithout a support line on those days. 7. Basic drawing While studying instandards VI, VII and VIII students had drawing class and drawing examination.There was drawing master who would draw pictures on black board which we had tocopy in drawing book. For examination there was choice of any of the threepictures drawn on black board, one sure drawing was of mango, which was easiest to draw. Thin roddrawing pencils were introduced to us in the drawing class. 8. Apsara pencils The set of apsarapencils were famous for drawing which I continued in college and professionaltraining. 9. Drawings in high school standards. Unlike today planenote books were used, and using drawing pencils we had to draw circuits inphysics class, charts in chemistry class, pictures of plants in botany classand human’s and animal parts in biology class. In Geography class also we hadto draw countries and states. Margins had to be drawn in pencil in note booksand in paper during examinations. Mathematics note book and answer paper we hadto draw margin keeping notebook/paper length wise. On right side we had to drawa line with more width than margin for calculations. Steps and answer waswritten in the body. 10 Instrument box and compass. I started usinginstrument box while studying in standard VIII if my recollection is correct. At that time three major divisions werethere- Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. While in college I started learning topics like Trigonometry, Calculus,integration etc. 11. Physics lab and drawings in practical and recordbook. The first time Iused drawing board and drawing paper while doing practical in the college Lab.Drawn sheets had to be pasted to the left side of record book. Record bookright side had lines to write about experiment done. I used drawing pencil ofquality at that time. 12. Engineering drawing Whereas I thoughtonly telecommunication engineering might be taught in the training centre, Iwas mistaken. I had to study basic civil, electrical and mechanical engineeringand pass examination in theory and engineering drawing examination. It was thefirst time I was using drawing board, T square etc. in the big examinationhall. 13. While in service After appointment,as junior engineer, I had to construct small extensions, compound walls, carryout electrical wirings and attend mechanical faults in machines. Smallfabrication of not available mechanical items had to be drawn, got approved andgot done with local workshops. Drawing pencil and drawing box was essential throughout career. Staff drafts werecorrected with pencil which was easy to identify and prepare new drafts. 16. Pitman’s short hand During high schoolvacation not to pass time, but aiming at some employment, I studied typewritingand shorthand. Shorthand was written in ruled notes. Pressure on pencil andstrokes in the note above and below the line was done to denote various pronunciationsound and later wrote as sentences. Now shorthand has become almost obsolete, thoughstenographers are there. They simply type the dictation with speed using keyboard in the computer. 17. Present day notebooks As we desire we getruled or un-ruled note books. Margin is already drawn. Only for drawing,drawing paper is used. Present day drawing are for construction plans, designsetc. Most write on ruled notebook and paper. 18. In the home A scribbling padwith/without line, ball point pens and pencils and eraser are always kept to notedown things in a home. Most homes keep bundle of plane paper for use withprinters. HB pencil set is kept. If atall ball point pen fail, pencil can be used immediately. Correction of something in pencil is easierthan in pen. Parents keep registers for different purposes in homes. Students will havetheir own pencil sets 19. Offices There cannot be anyoffice without pencil set and eraser withstaff and officers. Uses are manifold. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thatha_patty+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/75928649.2247528.1641720262280%40mail.yahoo.com.
