Professional and Scientific Instruments 101 
The first successful plant in this country was started by 
Eberhard Faber in 1861 in New York City. His cedar-and- 
graphite pencil deposed the quill pen. The raw material for 
pencils is known as pencil slat and is 714” x 214” x14. These 
slats are manufactured in the southern States and are shipped 
in bundles or crates to the manufacturers, a crate containing 
the raw material for 100 gross of pencils. The details of the 
manufacture of a pencil are simple but interesting. <A slat 
is first run through a machine which makes six grooves in it. 
Six pieces of lead are then laid in the grooves and a coating of 
glue applied. Another slat is then laid over the top. The 
whole is then run through another machine which cuts out the 
material between the leads, producing a pencil in the rough 
state. The pencil is then polished, painted, stamped, and 
graded. Several large factories are located in the vicinity of 
New York City and Brooklyn. The scarcity of the raw 
material and the enormous consumption of wood have resulted 
in a very serious depletion of the supply. Nearly 16,000,000 
feet of southern red cedar were used in 1912 as compared with 
the 2,000,000 feet reported in 1919. The result has been an 
eager search for all the remaining supply and the introduction 
of western red cedar (incense cedar — Libocedrus decurrens) 
in large quantities. Its cost was only one-third that of the 
southern species. 
The next most important industry in the table is that of 
cameras. Rochester and Lestershire have camera works of 
international reputation, consuming for camera boxes and parts 
much gum, white pine, birch, cherry, beech, basswood, cypress, 
ash, mahogany, sugar maple, white oak, and yellow poplar. 
Penholders are made almost exclusively from red gum; level 
blocks are made from cherry; thermometers from white oak; 
planes from beech; easels from beech and soft maple; surveyor 
stakes from oak, longleaf pine, chestnut and hickory; drafting 
tables and equipment from white ash, basswood, beech, mahog- 
any, yellow birch and white pine. The best wood for sur- 
veyors’ tripods and rods is hard maple. 
