Woo, I’m on a roll this week. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the history here, not being a pencil history expert myself, but this read has a lot of good words for larnin’. I’d put this in the lower-advanced spectrum, as the sentence structure isn’t over-the-top literary, but there are a ton of specialized words and proper nouns.
Learn to Read Mandarin Chinese – Simplified Character Learning Short StoriesThe tone is very encyclopedic, so, rather serious and not a lot of fun.
A couple of proper names for you:
巴罗代尔 – Borrowdale, England
乔治二世 – George the Second (English King)
法伯 – Eberhard Faber, a German chemist
孔德 – Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French scientist
铅笔的历史非常悠久,它起源于2000多年前的古罗马时期。那时的铅笔很简陋,只不过是金属套里夹着的一根铅棒,甚至是铅块,倒真是名副其实的“铅”笔。而我们今天使用的铅笔是用石墨和黏土制成的,里面并不含铅。
现代铅笔诞生于16世纪的英国。1564年,有人在巴罗代尔发现了一种名叫石墨的黑色矿物。石墨能像铅一样在纸上留下痕迹,而且比铅的痕迹要黑得多,因此,人们称石墨为“黑铅”。巴罗代尔一带的牧羊人常用石墨在羊身上做记号。后来,人们又将石墨块切成小条,用于写字、绘画。不久,英王乔治二世将巴罗代尔石墨矿收归皇室所有,把它定为皇家的专用品。
不过,石墨条也有它的缺点:容易弄脏手,还容易折断。1761年,德国化学家法伯用石墨粉同硫磺、松香等混合起来,制成条,这比纯石墨条的韧性大得多,也不大容易弄脏手。18世纪末时,只有英、德两国能够生产铅笔。
后来,法国也在自己的国土上找到了石墨矿,但矿的质量不高,储量也少。法国科学家孔德便在石墨中掺入黏土,放进窑里烧制,制成了既好用又耐用的铅笔芯。石墨中掺入的黏土的比例不同,铅笔芯的硬度也就不同。我们常看到铅笔头上标着B、HB一类的字母,表示的就是铅笔芯的硬度和颜色深浅。B表示黑度,H表示硬度,所以,HB就是软硬和颜色深浅都适中的铅笔芯,适合写字。
14 replies on “History: The History of the Pencil”
thxxx this helped me a lot
你的网站真了不起,对我的阅读水平很有帮助!
万谢!
Hi, thanks very much for these readings – they are very helpful! I hope you will continue to post.
One point regarding the above translation – I believe “金属” should be translated as “metal” rather than “gold”.
Hi. Useful for practice. Thanks.
One suggestion – the word “wick” should be replaced by “core.”
ainss, this one is still hard for me, I lack plenty of vocabulary! but the word-by-word note is AWESOMLY helpful for the new vocabulary. Luckily Chinese grammar is limitated! is all about vocabulary and idioms <3
That’s amazing! So wich type do we use because theirs like 5 types right? Anyways that’s awsome because we’re going way back to the olden days! Anyways thanks once A Gain. ;)-
I enjoyed it !
这个网站真的太棒了。。
After long, is not 不久. there are so much mistakes in every page both in Chinese and English.
Maybe you should learn proper English before moving on to Chinese. Your grammar is absolute dog poop.
how is this advanced level….lol
这个网站真的太棒了
I like the story!
This article is very interesting. It is nice to know how the pencil was created.