Pencil
(pronounced pen-suhl)
(1) A slender tube, usually of wood, metal or plastic
containing a core or strip of graphite (still referred to as lead) or a solid
coloring material, sharpened to some extent, used for writing or drawing.
(2) A stick of cosmetic coloring material for use
on the eyebrows, eyelids etc.
(3) Anything shaped or used like a pencil, as a
stick of medicated material.
(4) In optics (from the seventeenth century), an
aggregate or collection of rays of light, especially when diverging from or
converging to a point.
(5) In geometry (from the nineteenth century), a set
of geometric objects with a common property, such as the set of lines that pass
through a given point in a projective plane.
(6) As a verb, "to pencil in", to schedule or list
tentatively, as or as if by writing down in pencil rather than in more
permanent ink.
(7) In animation, as "pencil-test", a first take of
pictures, historically on black and white film stock, now emulated in software;
also used to describe a test which assesses (1) the viability of bralessness (Western tradition) or (2) one's attainment of "real womanhood" (Chinese use).
(8) In medicine, a small medicated bougie (from
the nineteenth century and now archaic).
(9) A paintbrush (from the fourteenth century and
now archaic).
1350–1400: From the Middle English pencel (an artist’s fine brush of camel hair, used for painting, manuscript illustration etc), from the Anglo-Norman and Old French pincil (artist's paintbrush) from the Old & Middle French pincel from the Medieval Latin pincellus, from the Latin pēnicillum & pēnicillus (painter's brush, hair-pencil (literally "little tail"), a diminutive of pēniculus (brush), a diminutive of penis (tail). It’s from the old French variant pincel that Modern French gained pinceau (paintbrush). The verb pencil emerged early in the sixteenth century as pencellen (apply (gold or silver) in manuscript illustration) and by the 1530s was being used in the sense of “to mark or sketch with a pencil-brush”, extended to work undertaken with lead pencils from the 1760s. Despite the obvious similarity, there is no relationship with the word pen. The spelling pensill is long obsolete. Pencil is a noun & verb, penciler is a noun, penciled is a verb, penciled is a verb & adjective and pencillike is an adjective; the noun plural is pencils. The additional "l" (penciller, pencilled etc) is used in traditional British spelling.
Pencils are produced in quite a variety and specialized types include the carpenter's pencil, the wax (or china) pencil, and the color pencil although what’s more precisely defined are the technical descriptions based on the specification of the graphite (HB, 2B etc), used to rate darkness and hardness. A propelling pencil is one with a replaceable and mechanically extendable lead that wears away with use, designed to provide lines of constant thickness without requiring sharpening and typically featuring a small eraser at the end opposite the tip. Pencil pouches and pencil cases are containers in which one stores ones pencils and related items (pencil sharpener, eraser et al); by convention a pouch was made of a soft material while cases tended to be fashioned from some hard substance (steel, wood, plastic etc) but the terms are used loosely. A kohl pencil (also called an eyeliner pencil) is one with a kohl core (which can be sharpened in the usual manner) used for enhancing the eyes. The golf pencil was originally designed for golfers and was about three inches (75 mm) in length though they’re now commonly used in situations where pencil turnover is high (election booths, gambling houses etc).
School pencils are a useful way to convey important messages to children.
The "pencil skirt" is a close-fitting garment which
classically was knee to calf length. In
explosives, a "pencil detonator" (also as "time pencil") is a timed fuse designed
to be connected to a detonator or short length of safety fuse. "Pencil-thin" is a term (historically one of admiration but of late also used negatively)
for an especially slender woman but it can be applied to any thin object
(synonymous with "stick-thin", thought a clipping of the earlier zoological
reference "stick insect thin"). The phrase "power
of the pencil" is from professional gambling and refers to an authority to
charge a punter's gambling or other bills to the casino (the house). The "lead in one's pencil" is slang which referencing the state of erection of one's penis; to "put the lead into one’s pencil" referred to some form of stimulation which induced such an erection (including presumably the sight of an attractive, pencil-thin woman). To "pencil something in" is to make a tentative
booking or arrangement (on the notion of being erasable as opposed to using ink
which suggests permanence or something confirmed); the phrase has been in use only
since 1942. The derogatory slang "pencil-pusher" (office worker) dates from 1881; prior to that such folk had since 1820 been called "pen-drivers", the new
form reflecting the arrival at scale of mass-produced pencils. The derogatory "pencil neck" (weak person) was
first noted in 1973 while "pencil dick" (a penis of a girth judged inadequate or a man with such an organ) is documented in US slang since 1962.
Lindsay Lohan in pencil skirts: The pencil skirt can be thought the companion product to the bandage dress; while a bandage dress ends usually above the knee (the more pleasing sometimes far above) a pencil skirt typically falls to the knee or is calf-length.
Technical terms for the grips with which a pencil is held.
The test pencil is a device with a small bulb or other form of illumination which lights up when an active current is detected. Available in many voltages (the most common being 12, 24, 48 (for automotive and other low-voltage applications) and 110/120 & 220/240v), they work either by direct contact with the wire through which the current passes or (through the insulation) as a proximity device. The "test pencil" should not be confused with the "pencil test" which is either (1) in animation, an early version of an animated scene, consisting of rough sketches that are photographed or scanned (now overtaken by technology which emulates the process in software and almost obsolete but the term is still used by graphic artists to describe conceptual sketches or rough takes), (2) in apartheid-era South Africa, a method of determining racial identity, based on how easily a pencil pushed through a person's hair could be removed and (3) a test to determine the necessity (some concede on the advisability) of wearing a bra, based on whether a pencil placed in the infra-mammary fold stays in place with no assistance (which sounds standardized but sources vary about whether the pencil test should be performed with the arms by the side or raised which can significantly affect the result.
The Pencil Test
Although it sounds a quintessentially TikTok thing and did trend in 2016, the year the Chinese version of TikTok was released, re-purposing of the pencil test by Chinese women as the “true womanhood” test actually pre-dated the platform. Like the best trends it was quick and simple and required only the most basic piece of equipment: a pencil (although a pen would do). The procedure was the classic pencil test used to determine the viability of bralessness but, unlike the occidental original where the pencil falling to the ground was graded a “pass”, in the oriental version, that’s a “fail”, the implement having to sit securely in place to prove one is “a real woman”. Millions of images were uploaded to Chinese social media channels as proof the challenge had been passed; this presumably will assist in ensuring one doesn’t become a leftover woman.
The Flying Pencil
Prototype Dornier 17 V1, 1934.
One of terms of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), imposed on Germany after the World War I (1914-1918) was it was denied the right to military aviation. Those familiar with the operations of sanctions in the twenty-first century will not be surprised that within a few years, there were significant developments in German civil aviation including gliding clubs which would provide the early training of many pilots who would subsequently join the Luftwaffe, even before the open secret of the organization’s existence formerly was acknowledged in 1935. Additionally, under well-concealed arrangements with Moscow, German pilots underwent training in the Soviet Union, one of the many programmes in a remarkably flourishing industry of military exchanges undertaken even during periods of notable political tension. In those years, the German aircraft industry also had its work-arounds, sometimes undertaking research, development and production in co-operation with manufacturers in other countries and sometime producing aircraft notionally for civil purposes but which could easily re-purposed for military roles. An example was the Dornier Do 17, nicknamed the “flying pencil” in an allusion to the slender fuselage.
In 1934, Dornier’s initial
description of the Do 17 as a passenger plane raised a few eyebrows in air
ministries around the continent but in an attempt to lend the ruse a (thin) veneer of truth, the
company submitted the design to Deutsche Luft Hansa (which became the modern carrier Lufthansa), the airline admiring the
speed and flying characteristics but rejecting the proposal on the reasonable
grounds the flying pencil had hardly any room for passengers. To all observers, the thing was obviously a
prototype bomber and one of the fastest and most advanced in the world but to
maintain the subterfuge, Dornier instead claimed it was now a “fast mail
transport”. That fooled few but so soon
after the Great War, there was little appetite in Europe for confrontation so Dornier
was able to continue to develop the Do 17 as a bomber, adding a glazed nose,
provision for internal armament and an internal bomb bay.
Dornier Do 217 E, 1943.
The deployment as part
of the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) provided valuable
information in both battle tactics and the need for enhanced defensive armaments
and it was these lessons which were integrated into the upgraded versions which
formed a part of the Luftwaffe’s bomber and reconnaissance forces at the start
of World II. They provided useful
service in the early campaigns against Poland, Norway & the Low Countries but
the limitations were exposed when squadrons were confronted by the advanced eight-gun fighters of the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Battle of Britain (July-September
1940). However, in the absence of a
better alternative, they played an important part in the early successes
Germany enjoyed in the invasion of the Soviet Union but such was the rapidity of art-time technological
advances that by 1942 the Do 17 was obsolescent and withdrawn from front-line
service, relegated to training and other ancillary roles. The slim frame which had in 1934 helped
provide the flying pencil with its outstanding performance now became a
limitation, preventing further development even as a night-fighter, the role
assigned in those years to many airframes no longer suitable for daytime
operations. Its successor, the Do 217 was
notably fatter in the fuselage but even it was soon rendered obsolete and by
1944 had been withdrawn from front-line service.
The extraordinary Mohammed Rafieh
Mohammed Rafieh opened Medad Rafi in Tehran in 1990, specializing in color pencils, a description which is no exaggeration. Although his stock numbers in the thousands, Mr Rafieh has no need for databases, barcodes or lists of part-numbers, having committed to memory the place of every pencil in his shop, an inventory said to include every color known to be available anywhere in the world. Mr Rafieh's shop is located in the vast bazaar which sits between the two mosques in Tehran's district 15. Medad (مداد) is Persian for pencil and Rafi the affectionate diminutive of Rafieh so in translation the shop is thus "Rafi's Pencils"; never has Mr Rafieh been accused of misleading advertising.
Mr Rafieh at work.
The pencil in its familiar, mass-produced form is surprisingly modern. Quills made from bird feathers and small brushes with bristles from a variety of creatures were used long before chalk or lead pencils. Sticks of pure graphite (commonly (if chemically inaccurately) known as "black lead") were used in England for marking writing instruments from the mid sixteenth century while the wooden enclosure was a contemporary innovation from the Continent and it seems to have been in this era the word pencil was transferred from a type of brush to the newly encapsulated "graphite writing implement". The modern clay-graphite mix, essentially little different to that still in use, was developed in the early nineteenth century, mass-production beginning in mid century, something made possible by the availability of cheap, precision machine tools. The inventor of the handy innovation of an eraser being attached to the end opposite the sharpened lead was granted a patent in 1858. Some like these on pencils and some don't.
Pencil sharpeners of increasing complexity. Unless one has specific needs, the old ways are usually the best.
The modern pencil also encouraged the development of the pencil sharpener, one of the world's most simple machines and something which really hasn't been improved upon although over the last century an extraordinary array of mechanical and electro-mechanical devices have been offered (some so wondrously complex it's suspected they existed just to flaunt the engineering although they do make fine gifts for nerds; it's likely nerds do prefer pencils to pens). Apparently first sold commercially in 1854 (prior to than a hand-held blade of some sort would have been the usual method), some have been intriguing and imaginative designs which sometimes found their specialized niche but none sharpen a pencil better than the cheapest and most simple. Even now, if one has paper, the creation of just about anything in theoretical physics, poetry or literature demands little equipment beyond pencil, sharpener & eraser.
The Faber-Castell production process.
The pencil as collectable
Pencils can
be collectables if their provenance adequately is documented. Doyle’s in New York on 18 June 2024 conducted
an auction of some items from the estate of US composer and lyricist Stephen
Sondheim (1930–2021), attracting dealers, collectors & Sondheim devotees and
Lot 278 was indicative of the strength of bidding: four (well worn) volumes of Roget's International Thesaurus. Although one was from the first printing (June
1946), it lacked a dust jacket and came with library markings and a “Withdrawn”
stamp. None of those offered were rarities (reflected in the pre-sale estimate of US$200-300) but the hammer fell at an
impressive US$25,600. The stationery
freaks (it really is quite a thing) were also in the crowd, a signed spiral notebook
selling for what one commentator called “a startling US$15,360.”
Lot 275: Three boxes of Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 pencils. They were not cylindrical so, like a "carpenter's pencil", were less prone to rolling onto the floor.
What was
most surprising though was the fate of Lot 275: “Three boxes of vintage Blackwing 602 pencils
(Circa 1940s-1950s). Three blue boxes
printed with "Eberhard Faber/Blackwing/Feathery-Smooth Pencils, two of the
boxes complete with 12 pencils, one with 8 only (together 32 pencils). Some wear to the boxes and drying of the
erasers.” Sondheim was a
devoted Blackwing user, telling one interviewer: “I use Blackwing pencils. Blackwings. They don’t make ’em any more, and luckily, I
bought a lot of boxes of ’em. They’re
very soft lead. They’re not round, so
they don’t fall off the table, and they have removable erasers, which
unfortunately dry out."
The pencils sold for US$6,400 against a pre-sale estimate of US$600-800.
The pencils
were an example of how critical is provenance in the collectables market. In June 2023, Bloomfield Auctions in east Belfast,
Northern Ireland, held a “specialist”
sale focused “militaria,
police and important Irish historical items”, one entry with a
pre-sale estimate of US$65,000-100,000 being Lot 148: “An engraved, silver-plated pencil, believed
to have been a 52nd birthday present (20 April 1941) from Eva Braun (1912–1945)
to Adolf
Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government
1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945).
On the day, the pencil sold for US$6,900.
The lower than expected price may have been the result of doubts being cast on the authenticity of the item’s claimed history. Technically, Lot 148 was a mid-20th-century mechanical pencil, of white metal (presumably one with a high nickel content) and silver-plated, engraved along one louvered side facet with the inscription: ZUM 20 APRIL 1941 HERZLICHST EVA. That’s an abbreviated form of phrase typically used on occasions such as birthdays, the brevity necessitated by the surface area with which the engraver had to work, the pencil only some 3¼ inches (82.5 mm) long. Deconstructed, the sentence fragment begins with the preposition “to” and a contracted, inflected article of speech, “the” expressed in the dative case. Zum is literally “To the...”, understood as “Upon the...”. So, the signatory (“Eva”) is marking the occasion the birthday on 20 April 1941, the inherent formality of form what one would expect in a gift to a head of state though perhaps not one from a lover. However, the very existence of the relationship between the Führer and the woman who later briefly would be Frau Hitler was unknown beyond his court circle and it may have been even the jeweller wasn’t to be given a hint; the exact (physical) nature of their relationship remains a mystery. However, the word herzlichst is from the root noun Herz (heart) and as an adjective or adverb, herzlich, is often used in the sense of “heartful” or “heartfelt” which at least suggests something intimate and the –st suffix operates to create a superlative, which if literally translated (“most heartful” or “most heartfelt”) sounds in English like something which might be used ironically or cynically but there’s nothing to suggest it should be understood as anything but something like: On the occasion of the 20th April, 1941, most heartfully, Eva.
The "Hitler" Pencil top.The provenance
of the pencil however proved controversial, something not helped by the anonymity
of the seller and the lack of any documentary trail which might have helped
confirm the veracity of the back-story.
While one could speculate any number of the life the pencil may have led
over the decades, no evidence was offered.
The sale also attracted criticism which is increasingly heard when auction
houses offer any of the militaria, memorabilia and ephemera connected with
Hitler or the Nazis in general. Although
such objects have for decades been collectables there’s now more resistance to
the notion of profits being derived from the trade in what is, in some sense, “the
commemoration of evil” and the Chairman of the European Jewish Association had called
for the pencil to be withdrawn from sale, issuing a statement in which he
called the auction part of a “…macabre trade in items belonging to mass murderers, the
motives of those buying them are unknown and may glorify the actions of the
Nazis, and lastly, their trade is an insult to the millions who perished, the
few survivors left, and to Jews everywhere.” The president of the Board of Deputies of
British Jews described the sale as “…distressing, disturbing and hugely disrespectful”,
arguing that even if of historical significance “…these items have no place in our country
other than inside the walls of a museum or other institution where they can be
used to teach about the results of anti-Semitism.”
1938 Mercedes-Benz 770K (W150) Cabriolet F, a seven passenger tourer & parade car, pictured here with the folding soft-top in sedanca de ville configuration.
There is
still some tolerance for the trade in items which would otherwise anyway be
collectables (such as the Mercedes-Benz 770Ks (W07 (1930-1938) & W150
(1938-1943), many of which when offered are claimed (dubiously and not) to have
some association with Hitler) and for anything of genuine historical significance
(such as diplomatic papers) but the circulation of mere ephemera with some Nazi
link is increasingly being condemned as macabre and the higher the prices paid,
the most distasteful it seems. A
spokesman for Bloomfield Auctions defended the inclusion of such items in the
sale, arguing they “…preserve a piece of our past and should be treated as
historical objects, no matter if the history they refer to was one of the
darkest and most controversial in recorded history.”, adding “We do not seek to
cause hurt or distress to any one or any part of society” and that
buyers typically were “legitimate collectors who have a passion for history… all
items are a part of history, and we shouldn't be writing history out of books
or society.”
Pencil sculpture by Russian artist Salavat Fidai (b 1972).
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