Sixty-three deaths from cholera occuried in Italy on the 24th inst.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1895, 28 August 1884, Page 3

Sixty -three deaths from cholera occuried in Italy on the 24th inst.

The CohT of a Lkad Pencil.— " What does ib cost to make ci lead pencil ?" enquiried a reporter of the New York sun. "Fust let me toll you how we make a lead pencil." said the manufacturer. "See this fine black powdei 1 'I hat's graphite. It coat twenty-five cents a pound. This v> hite substance is German clay. It comes across the ocean as ballast in sailing vessels, and all it costs us is freight. We mix this clay and this pow der together and grind them in a mill allowing moistuieto bo added dining the process, until the two are thoioughly assimilated and are reduced to a paste about the consistency of putty. This paste we press into these dies, each one of which is the size of a pencil lead, except in length. Theie are four leads in one of these. After they are piessed we cut them into the pioper length, and bake them in an oven kept at very high heat. There we have the lead made. Its hardness is regulated by the gi eater or less amount of clay we mix with the graphite — the mote clay we put in the hai der the lead. The cedar we use comes piincipally from the swamps of Florida, and is obtained entirely from the fallen trees tha the there. The wood is delh ered to us in blocks sawed hi pencil lengths, some thick to receive the lead, and others thin, for the piece that is glued over the lead. The blocks are sawed for four pencils each. They are grooved by a saw, the groove being the place where the lead is to lie. The leads are kept in hot glue, and are placed in the grooves as the blocks are ready. When that is done, the thin block is glued fast to the thick one. When dry the blocks are run through a machine that cuts the pencil apait. Then they are mn through a machine that shapes and burnishes them, and they are ready to be tied in bunches, boxed and put out. The different grades in value are made by finer manipulation of the graphite. Here is a pencil that is about the average quality used in every day business. It costs a little more than one quarter of a cent to get it ready for market. We sell it to dealers at oue hundred per cent profit, and the dealer makes much more than that. Of this grade an operator and the machinery will easily make 2,500 a day.