872 Transactions of the American Institute. 



the same manner, except putting the graphite into a wood frame. 

 The pencil makers have met with great difficulties in procuring their 

 necessary supplies, and to substitute the exhausted native Cumber- 

 land. They were not successful until the year 1846, when a French 

 merchant, John Peter Allibert, discovered in the mountains of Sibe- 

 ria, not far from Jakutsk, an extensive deposit of graphite, which 

 has proved equal to the Borrowdale in every respect. The great 

 pencil maker, Faber, the jjioueer of this industry in the world, who 

 has a branch in this city, has possession of this mine, and he received 

 a shipment of 200,000 lbs. by the overland route, via Amoor river, 

 the freight of which amounted to $20,000, of which he is using 

 now 2,000 lbs. per week for his best pencils. The German black 

 lead has been used for a century past in the manufacture of cruci- 

 bles and for small furnaces for assayers and chemists, while the 

 finest varieties of graphite for pencils have been furnished from 

 Cumberland and Siberia. The Cevlon and German, as likewise the 

 Ticonderoga graphite, furnish the sole material for crucibles. All 

 other localities yield materials for lustres, lubricators and other pur- 

 poses. Argillaceous matters are not prejudicial to the manufacture 

 of crucibles ; but the presence of carbonate of lime is very objection- 

 able, since the lime forms a fusible compound at the great heat to 

 which the crucibles are exposed, and the object is defeated. 



The German .Bavarian crucibles, which stood in high estimation 

 for centuries past, are composed of very impure materials, not half of 

 their constituents containing black lead ; while the American crucible, 

 first introduced in the United States by that pioneer, Joseph Dixon, 

 contains nearly three parts of black lead and one part clay. He 

 began manutacturing the black lead crucibles in 1837, and drove the 

 triangular pots out. of this market. This firm eonsuuies at the i)resent 

 day more plumbago than any other one concern in the world, Tlieir 

 ci'ucibles are now introduced all over the civilized world, where the 

 precious metals, steel, or alloys, as brass, German sUvei", are made or 

 melted. They consume forty tons of it per week; they procure their 

 supplies principally from Ceylon and from Ticonderoga, in New 

 York. The consumption of crucibles for pyro-chemical operations is 

 very considerable ; I saw last year, in Pittsburg, in one establish- 

 ment, 200 large black -lead crucibles, in the furnaces at the same time ; 

 consiclering' the number of ten or twelve crucible manufactories in 

 the United States, the amount of plumbago consumed in the country 

 cannot be less than 10,000 tons per annum. This quantity of graph- 



