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The first graphite deposits were found in Borrowdale, England.
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The discovery of a graphite mine in England led to the invention of the pencil. In order to make a pencil, pure graphite from the mine was sliced into thin sheets. Then, the sheets were cut into strips. A strip of graphite was fitted into a wooden holder or wrapped in coils of string. These first pencils had soft lead and made a dark mark. These pencils were mostly used by artists. In the future, pencil makers would learn to mix clay with the graphite to form the hard lead that is used in Number
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By the year 1795 graphite from Borrowdale was no longer unique. This was because of the war in England because people couldn´t go to England to get graphite, to use for pencil making, so Conté in Paris started to produce artificial graphite.
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In 1795, N.J. Conté successfully made pencils after the Faber family of Nuremburg, Germany tried and failed to do so.
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William Monroe of the US invented a machine that is capable of making grooves in wood slats for making pencils.
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Factory that makes pencils is then taken over by the Greenwood family in order to pay off a debt.
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The factory that the Greenwood family took control of in 1912´s name is chaned to the Cumberland Pencil Co.