Pencil Revolution
and the development of balloons
Napoleon took hot air balloons into battle.
Founded in 1794, The Compagnie d’Aérostiers is the world’s first balloon unit.
An Aerostatic Development Centre is set up to research balloon technology. The man placed in charge is an inventor, chemist, physicist and engineer who had spent his teens as a painter’s apprentice.
He experiments with materials for balloons, improves techniques of hydrogen production, refines the shapes of balloons, and develops a system for long distance communication.
His name is Nicolas-Jacques Conté.
Conté’s work with balloons leads to the formation of the Compagnie d’Aérostiers. When a second balloon unit is formed, Conté is made head of a new School of Ballooning where soldiers are trained in skills essential to ballooning, including carpentry and chemistry.
Meanwhile, Minister of War Lazare Carnot has another more pressing issue. He needs a brilliant mind so calls on the inventor and balloon expert Nicolas-Jacques Conté.
The British Navy are blockading trade routes to France, meaning that supplies of graphite from Cumbria in England are cut off. Graphite has become extremely expensive and difficult to get hold of.
France needs a new way to make pencils.
It takes Conté 8 days to invent what becomes known as the Conté process. He uses clay as a binder, mixed with low quality powered graphite, and baked at 1037 degrees Celsius.
His next innovation is to encase the graphite core in two half cylinders of wood.
Conté’s pencils are cheaper and easier to produce than any before.
Continuing his experiments, Conté discovers that changing the ratio of graphite to clay changes the hardness and softness of the pencil.
Soon, he begins to work with pigments such as lamp black, sepia and chalk, binding them with clay and creating pencils with colour variations.
In 1798 a Grand Exposition is held in Paris to celebrate both the new Republic and French industry. A jury selects 110 exhibitors to demonstrate their inventions.
The Exposition begins with a formal procession: wave after wave of trumpet players, marching soldiers, tambourine players, military bands, waving Tricolours, politicians, and dignitaries.
Among the inventions on display are an instrument for cataract operations and a device that demonstrates the new metric system.
From among these 110 inventions, 12 exhibitors are selected for their outstanding achievements and awarded honourable distinction.
One of these is Nicolas-Jacques Conté for his “crayons of various colours”.
On January 15th, 1799 the military balloon unit Compagnie d’Aérostiers is disbanded.
The pencil, however, lives on.
All my posts are remaining free and open for the foreseeable future! If you fancy getting me a cuppa tea that would be amazing! Totally up to you, we’ll still be friends!
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolas-Jacques-Conte
http://scihi.org/nicolas-jacques-conte-pencil/
https://pencils.sundrymemes.com/pen_hero.htm
https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/nicolas-jacques-conte/
https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/06/24/history-of-the-pencil/
https://www.conteaparis.com/en/about/
https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2019/05/the-history-of-the-pencil.html
https://www.arthurchandler.com/1798-exposition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposition_des_produits_de_l%27industrie_fran%C3%A7aise
I’m loving this series of posts about pencils Nanette!!
I’m delighted that I scrolled back to November in the Substack app so I could find this gem! It’s not only fascinating, but there’s something there about innovation that I feel I can use while world building for my new fantasy novel.
This origin story also helps me understand why the UK calls what I define as “colored pencils” crayons. How do you distinguish between the wooden pencil shaped ones and the wax crayons children typically use? Inquiring American minds want to know. 🧐