The history of the pencil dates back to the 16th century at Borrowdale . A thunderstorm toppled some trees and uncovered a black substance that marked the hands of people who touched it. This was graphite. In its natural form, graphite is messy and soft. To make it easy to use, people first wrapped a sliver of graphite inside a roll of sheepskin or rope. Today, the graphite is inserted into a wooden case for easy handling.
Graphite melts at very high temperatures. This made it perfect to use in cannons. Graphite-coated cannon balls continue to fire with great accuracy, even when a cannon gets very hot. This made graphite a very valuable weapon. So the British Government took over the graphite mine at Borrowdale. For many years, armed guards took the precious graphite all the way down to the weapon factories in the naval shipyards in the south of England. Local people tried to smuggle out the graphite, which was nearly as valuable as gold. To stop this, the British Government created a law in 1752 to punish people caught smuggling graphite to hard labour in prison colonies overseas. However, this harsh new law did not stop the smuggling!
The Borrowdale mine remains the only major source of graphite in its near-pure form in the world. Smaller graphite mines exist in parts of China, which now produces most of the world’s pencils. Nowadays, the best grade graphite at Borrowdale is totally exhausted. But England’s pencil industry continues to thrive in the nearby town of Keswick. Keswick’s first pencil factory opened in 1832. This is now owned by the Cumberland Pencil Company and still produces a wide range of high quality pencils.
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