The sound is a really big part, I think, of the experience of using a pencil, and it has this really audible scratchiness.
我認為,在用鉛筆的體驗中, 聲音是很重要的一部分, 它的刮擦聲是能清楚聽見的。
(Scratching)
(刮擦聲)
[Small thing. Big idea.]
〔小東西。大點子。〕
[Caroline Weaver on the Pencil]
〔卡羅琳韋弗談鉛筆〕
The pencil is a very simple object. It's made of wood with some layers of paint an eraser and a core, which is made out of graphite, clay and water. Yeah, it took hundreds of people over centuries to come to this design. And it's that long history of collaboration that, to me, makes it a very perfect object.
鉛筆是樣很簡單的東西。 它是木製的,加上幾層的塗料、 一個橡皮擦、和一條芯, 芯是用石墨、黏土,及水做成的。 但,花了數百人數世紀的時間, 才提出這個設計。 對我來說,正是這漫長的合作史 讓鉛筆成為非常完美的物品。
The story of the pencil starts with graphite. People started finding really useful applications for this new substance. They cut it into small sticks and wrapped it in string or sheepskin or paper and sold it on the streets of London to be used for writing or for drawing or, a lot of times, by farmers and shepherds, who used it to mark their animals. Over in France, Nicolas-Jacques Conté figured out a method of grinding the graphite, mixing it with powdered clay and water to make a paste. From there, this paste was filled into a mold and fired in a kiln, and the result was a really strong graphite core that wasn't breakable, that was smooth, usable -- it was so much better than anything else that existed at the time, and to this day, that's the method that's still used in making pencils.
鉛筆的故事始於石墨。 人們開始發現這種新物質 有些很有用的應用。 他們把石墨切成小條狀, 用繩子、羊皮,或紙張包起來, 在倫敦街頭販售, 用來寫字或是繪圖, 很多時候也會被農夫和牧人 用來標記他們的動物。 在法國, 尼古拉斯雅克康特想出了 一種方式來磨石墨, 把它和粉狀黏土及水 混合,做成膏狀。 接著,這膏狀物會被 填入模具中做窯燒, 結果會產出非常堅硬的石墨芯, 它不會斷,很滑順,很好用── 在那個時候,它比其他 所有既有的東西都好很多, 至今,鉛筆仍是用這個方式製造的。
Meanwhile, over in America, in Concord, Massachusetts, it was Henry David Thoreau who came up with the grading scale for different hardnesses of pencil. It was graded one through four, number two being the ideal hardness for general use. The softer the pencil, the more graphite it had in it, and the darker and smoother the line will be. The firmer the pencil, the more clay it had in it and the lighter and finer it will be.
在這期間,在美國 馬薩諸塞州的康科特, 亨利大衛梭羅想出了鉛筆的 軟硬度要有分級標準。 分級從一到四, 第二級是最適合一般用途的軟硬度。 越軟的鉛筆裡面就有越多的石墨, 畫出來的線會更黑也更滑順。 越硬的鉛筆裡面有越多的泥土, 線條會越淡且越精細。
Originally, when pencils were handmade, they were made round. There was no easy way to make them, and it was the Americans who really mechanized the craft. A lot of people credit Joseph Dixon for being one of the first people to start developing actual machines to do things like cut wood slats, cut grooves into the wood, apply glue to them ... And they figured out it was easier and less wasteful to do a hexagonal pencil, and so that became the standard.
最初,鉛筆是手工製的, 它們被做成圓形。 沒有簡單的製造方式, 是美國人將這項工藝機械化的。 許多人認為約瑟迪克森是 最先開始發展機器製造的人之一, 機器可以切木板條、 在木頭上切出溝條、 在它們上面上膠…… 他們發現,做六角狀的鉛筆比較容易 也比較不浪費, 所以六角狀就成了標準。
Since the early days of pencils, people have loved that they can be erased. Originally, it was bread crumbs that were used to scratch away pencil marks and later, rubber and pumice. The attached eraser happened in 1858, when American stationer Hymen Lipman patented the first pencil with an attached eraser, which really changed the pencil game. The world's first yellow pencil was the KOH-I-NOOR 1500. KOH-I-NOOR did this crazy thing where they painted this pencil with 14 coats of yellow paint and dipped the end in 14-carat gold.
在鉛筆的早期, 人們很喜愛它可以被擦掉的特性。 最早,是用麵包屑 來把鉛筆畫出的痕跡給刮掉, 後來,改用橡膠和輕石。 1858 年開始把橡皮擦附在鉛筆上, 那年,美國的文具商海門利普曼 為第一枝附橡皮擦的鉛筆取得專利, 這真的改變了鉛筆的賽局。 世界上第一枝黃色鉛筆是 KOH-I-NOOR 1500。 KOH-I-NOOR 做了件瘋狂的事, 他們把鉛筆塗上了十四層的黃顏料, 把末端浸在 14K 金中。
There is a pencil for everyone, and every pencil has a story. The Blackwing 602 is famous for being used by a lot of writers, especially John Steinbeck and Vladimir Nabokov. And then, you have the Dixon pencil company. They're responsible for the Dixon Ticonderoga. It's an icon, it's what people think of when they think of a pencil and what they think of when they think of school. And the pencil's really a thing that, I think, the average user has never thought twice about, how it's made or why it's made the way it is, because it's just always been that way.
每個人都有一枝鉛筆, 每枝鉛筆都有一個故事。 Blackwing 602 因為 被很多作家使用而聞名, 特別是約翰史坦貝克 與弗拉基米爾納博科夫。 接著,還有鉛筆公司 Dixon。 Dixon Ticonderoga 是他們的產品。 它很有代表性, 當人們想到鉛筆時就會想到它, 當他們想到學校時也會想到它。 我認為,其實鉛筆這個東西, 一般使用者不會去多想它的製造方式, 以及為何要把鉛筆做成這個樣子, 因為鉛筆一直就是這樣的。
In my opinion, there's nothing that can be done to make the pencil better than it is. It's perfect.
在我看來,已經沒辦法能把 鉛筆做得比現在更好了。 它很完美。