Part 28 (1/2)

Vasari writes of a certain sixteenth century artist, that he was equally skillful in handling the stylus or the pen, black chalk or red crayon

It was this period which witnessed the discovery of pluo, a mineral which was soon worked up into an entirely new ,-- the lead pencil

This discovery, which was destined to confer such great benefits not only upon practical life, but also upon art, was n of Queen Elizabeth, for in the year 1564 the celebrated black-lead mines of Borrowdale, in cu of this lish soil a lead pencil industry which in the course of time was to assume important dimensions

The first lead pencils are supposed to have been land in the second half of the sixteenth century The raw pluo, or ”wad,” as it was locally ter the surface it was sawn into strips of the required size, and these, without any further h it may appear, the lead pencils first ed to have been the best--and even at the beginning of the present century they remained unsurpassed upon the score of the softness and fine tone of the lead Although the cu to the fact that they were the first to successfully -felt want, they nevertheless owed their permanent and wide-spread reputation-- more especially in artistic circles--to their excellent quality

Towards the end of the last century the black-lead pencil industry was introduced into France, where with some restrictions it soon developed

With the removal of all restrictions on industrial freedo es, for not only did the addition of clay cause a saving of a large percentage of the valuable reatly facilitated the method of reatly reduced prices

By these improveun in France Still, there remainedin order to do justice to the increasing demands of art and the requirements of more civilized life

It is true, different kinds of lead pencils of various degrees were produced, but they did not co ith the different uses for which they were needed The manipulation of the brittle material required not only deep study, but also conscientious and skillful workmen, in order to impart the necessary standard of perfection to the lead pencil

A the various German industries the manufacture of black-lead pencils occupied but a very modest place

The first traces of its existence are to be found at Stein, a village not far froisters es between ”black-lead pencil makers,” and, at a later date references are found in the saisters to ”black-lead cutters” of both sexes

The manufacture of black-lead pencils, however, occupied a position on the very lowest rung of the industrial ladder

But is tiovernment directed their attention to this branch of industry, and did all in their power to encourage it; and, as early as the year 1766, a Count von Kronsfeld obtained a concession to establish a lead pencil factory at Jettenbach Later on, in the year 1816, the Bavarian government established a royal lead pencil manufactory at Obernzell (Hafnerzell), and introduced into it the French process, described above, of using clay as a binding raphite

CHAPTER XXVIII

ANCIENT INK BACKGROUNDS (THE ORIGIN OF PAPYRUS)

FROM WHENCE COMES THE NAME PAPER--FIRST CENTURY COMMENT ABOUT IT--KNIGHT'S COMMENTS MORE THAN 1,800 YEARS LATER--PAPYRUS AN EGYPTIAN REED--NAMES BESTOWED BY ANCIENT WRITERS--THE SAME NAMES AS EMPLOYED IN MODERN TIMES--LEAVES OF PLANTS PRECEDED THE INVENTION OF PAPYRUS-- WHEN IT WAS THAT ROLLED RECORDS CAME INTO VOGUE--VARRO'S ESTIMATION AS TO THE ORIGINAL USE OF PAPYRUS NOT CORRECT--REAL FACTS RESPECTING THE INTRODUCTION OF PAPYRUS BEYOND THE LIMITS OF EGYPT--CHARACTER OF MATERIALS EMPLOYED BY THE GREEKS BEFORE THAT EPOCH--EMPLOYMENT OF IT FOR LITERARY PURPOSES--ADOPTION OF PARCHMENT AND VELLUM--PAPYRUS MSS EMPLOYED IN THE FORM OF ROLLS AND THE REASON FOR SAME--ANCIENT MANUFACTURE OF PAPYRUS IN EGYPT--SOME OF THE NAMES USED TO DESIGNATE DIFFERENT KINDS--PLINY'S DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPYRUS AND HIS MISINFORMATION ABOUT IT--WHERE IT FLOURISHED BEST--PAPYRUS AS KNOWN TO THE HEBREWS AND ITS BIBLICAL MENTION--MANUFACTURE OF PAPYRUS IN THE ANCIENT CITY OF MEMPHIS--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PAPER EMPLOYED BY THE MEXICANS--MR HARRIS'S DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT FRAGMENTS OF PAPYRUS-- THE STORY ABOUT IT AS TOLD BY THE LONDON ATHENaeUM--DATES OF THE OLDEST KNOWN SPECIMENS OF GREEK PAPYRI--DATE OF THE FIRST DISCOVERY OF GREEK PAPYRI--USE OF OTHER PLIABLE MATERIALS WITH PAPYRUS--HOW THEY WERE PREPARED FOR WRITING PURPOSES--DOUBTS AS TO TIME THAT ROLLED RECORDS SUPERSEDED TABLET FORMS--SUGGESTIONS BY NOEL HUMPHREYS--VIEWS ENTERTAINED BY EARLIER WRITERS

THE naypt, whose stalk furnished for soupon to the people of that country and those bordering on the Mediterranean Sea In the first century of the Christian era the younger Pliny rees of civilized life depend in a reree upon the employment of paper

At all events, the remembrance of past events”

A state comment:

”This observation, undoubtedly true 1,800 years ago, isthat paper asunderstand it was entirely unknown to Europe in the tireat dependence upon what seeile and inefficient a substitute for real paper appears strange”

Mr Knight also says that the Greek name papuros, mentioned by Theophrastus, a conteyptian name of the reed with a Greek termination It was also called biblos by Homer and Herodotus, whence our term bible The term volumen, a scroll, indicates the early form of a book of bark, papyrus, skin, or parchment, as the term liber (Latin, a book, or the inner bark of a tree) does the use of the bark itself Hence also our terms library and librarian ”Book” is also derived fro, the bark of the beech

Pliny quoting Varro, who preceded him some two centuries, asserts that before the invention of papyrus, the large leaves of certain plants were prepared so that they could be written upon Hence originates our teriven us the modern term folio

When, however, the reed pen and the pencil brush and their kindred substances denoue, some material on which characters could be inscribed and preserved in the shape of continuous rolls for record and other uses became necessary The papyrus plant seems to have met every requirement It is a noteworthy fact that all information which can be derived from any source, specifically calls attention to papyrus and so coexistent with pen and ink

Varro has been credited with ation and discovery are proved to be incorrect One of these is in effect that the use of papyrus was an incident pertaining to the expeditions of Alexander the Great This assertion is not only contradicted by Pliny, the historian, who calls attention to ”books of papyrus found in the to of Rome, B C 716-672,) but even at this late day ing to periods more than a thousand years before Alexander's time

The real facts in respect to this matter are, that the introduction of the use of papyrus to nations beyond the liypt was an event that did not take place until after the reign of the first Macedonian sovereign of Egypt, Ptoleypt gave back her papyrus Before this epoch the Greeks had been in the habit of e suchpurposes, while their public records were inscribed on stone, brass, lead or other metals

Papyrus as then introduced into those western countries was the only substance for a long period employed for literary purposes