Were pencils leads ever made with lead element ?

[Externet]

Hi all. 

It is very easy to write with lead metal on paper and other surfaces.  Same with tin metal,  learned the same happens with indium metal.  Where pencils ever made initially with soft metals ?

[studiot]

I believe the Romans used a real lead stylus.

What we know as the 'pencil'  ie a soft marking core housed in a wooden casing was invented sometime in the 15th or 16th century.

Sometime between the Romans, say AD 500 and AD 1500 graphite displaced lead but when is uncertain.

https://kitkemp.com/a-short-sharp-history-of-the-pencil/

 

Charcoal sticks (without casing) have been used for marking for thousands of years.

Edited July 5 by studiot

[exchemist]

On 7/6/2024 at 12:03 AM, studiot said:

I believe the Romans used a real lead stylus.

What we know as the 'pencil'  ie a soft marking core housed in a wooden casing was invented sometime in the 15th or 16th century.

Sometime between the Romans, say AD 500 and AD 1500 graphite displaced lead but when is uncertain.

https://kitkemp.com/a-short-sharp-history-of-the-pencil/

 

Charcoal sticks (without casing) have been used for marking for thousands of years.

Did the Romans really use a lead stylus? I should have thought it would be far too soft and would bend.

[swansont]

1 hour ago, exchemist said:

Did the Romans really use a lead stylus? I should have thought it would be far too soft and would bend.

Was it pure lead? It could have been an alloy; AFAICT adding a little copper, tin or antimony makes it harder and you don’t generally find pure lead in nature.

[Ken Fabian]

5 hours ago, exchemist said:

Did the Romans really use a lead stylus? I should have thought it would be far too soft and would bend.

May have been more like a crayon stick in workshops and construction sites than used for writing on parchment or in wax or on papyrus. Thick enough to not bend. Being soft would make it easy to hammer a new point if necessary.

If I were using them I'd want a wrap between fingers and lead but they may not have been aware of lead poisoning. Could have though; getting fingers gone shiny metallic from handling it would be obvious and I believe stone floors were polished with blocks of lead so successions of slaves doing it getting similar debilitation could have been noticed, so... use only cheap slaves? I suppose there could have been a lively interest in poisons as well as cures in some quarters.

[exchemist]

29 minutes ago, Ken Fabian said:

May have been more like a crayon stick in workshops and construction sites than used for writing on parchment or in wax or on papyrus. Thick enough to not bend. Being soft would make it easy to hammer a new point if necessary.

If I were using them I'd want a wrap between fingers and lead but they may not have been aware of lead poisoning. Could have though; getting fingers gone shiny metallic from handling it would be obvious and I believe stone floors were polished with blocks of lead so successions of slaves doing it getting similar debilitation could have been noticed, so... use only cheap slaves? I suppose there could have been a lively interest in poisons as well as cures in some quarters.

Surely wood would be a lot cheaper and better, to make styli?  Or bone? Why go to the trouble and expense of using lead? 

[studiot]

13 hours ago, exchemist said:

Did the Romans really use a lead stylus? I should have thought it would be far too soft and would bend.

Take a look a a bar of plumbers bar solder.

It is easily strong enough to write with.

Don't forget theat the Romans invented lead plumbing.

Here is some current data, I don't have information on the roman mix, but the modern bar is only 60 - 70 % lead.

https://soldersandfluxes.co.uk/product/grade-d-1-2-kg-bar-pack-of-1/

 

6 hours ago, exchemist said:

Surely wood would be a lot cheaper and better, to make styli?  Or bone? Why go to the trouble and expense of using lead? 

I think lead marking has more permanancy than charcoal, but as previously noted both have been used.

 

The original question asked about pencils. The significant innovation with the pencil is the casing holding the marking material.

 

[exchemist]

37 minutes ago, studiot said:

Take a look a a bar of plumbers bar solder.

It is easily strong enough to write with.

Don't forget theat the Romans invented lead plumbing.

Here is some current data, I don't have information on the roman mix, but the modern bar is only 60 - 70 % lead.

https://soldersandfluxes.co.uk/product/grade-d-1-2-kg-bar-pack-of-1/

 

I think lead marking has more permanancy than charcoal, but as previously noted both have been used.

 

The original question asked about pencils. The significant innovation with the pencil is the casing holding the marking material.

 

OK. However the Roman stylus was used to scratch characters on a wax tablet, not to leave a mark on paper. There was no paper until the c.13th or 14th, I think. The Romans did use pen and ink, on papyrus and parchment, but I've never heard of them using anything resembling a pencil. That is certainly not what a stylus was, according to my understanding.