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。
13 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.
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.