The Lakes District is what the guides call ‘the most beautiful corner of England’. There’s lots to see, lots to do. When Derek, our B&B host, asked us at breakfast what we had planned for the day, dad said, ‘We’re going to the pencil museum.’
‘The pencil museum?’ Derek’s eyebrows shot up. ‘In Keswick?’
Yes, indeed. The highlight of our day would be the Cumberland Pencil Museum, home to Derwents, the world’s first pencil and the world’s largest pencil (not the same pencil).
At the museum, I learned about how pencils are made. I had somehow assumed that graphite lead was punched through a tube of wood. Obviously, I hadn’t thought too clearly about this because surely the graphite would snap during such a violent operation. I mean, that’s what they do when I’m writing in an exam. In actual fact, the graphite is sandwiched between two halves of the wooden shell, then the shell is shaved to make that nice hexagon shape.
I learned that in World War II, Allies soldiers were given special pencils, whose ends could be unscrewed to reveal a compass and secret maps of parts of Germany.
While there, I gawked at the world’s largest pencil. It’s almost eight metres long and 450 kg. If you could pick it up and draw with it, you could draw a banana or the sun. It probably wouldn’t be so good for writing on a Post-It note, though, even if you could write something intelligible on such a small surface.
Finally, we watched a video about the history of the pencil. My favourite part of the film went something like this: ‘In a great feat of engineering, Amercians spent ten years to develop a pen that would work in the zero gravity of space. The Russians used pencils.’
I didn’t know there is such a place as the pencil museum. It’s going to be one of my “to go” places. Very interesting! I used to collect pencils with cartoon prints when I was a kid. Does the museum sell pencils?
It’s an interesting enough place to visit if you’re in the neighbourhood. I wouldn’t go out of your way, though!
The most unmissable place, in my opinion, is the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop, which is about 15 minutes from the pencil museum. It makes what people call ‘the best gingerbread in the world’. We bought a packet of six thin slices. They were pretty nice. Yeah… could do with some now.
Oh, the museum does sell pencils. I was tempted to get a set with my name on them. You get a free lead pencil with your entry fee.
Sorry to kill the party, but that anecdote from the film is actually false (but it does illustrate an important point). Well, not false, strictly speaking, but definitely misleading. Check out:
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
Ah, party pooper 🙂
Fisher didn’t seem to make much of a profit. 400 pens x $2.95 = much less than $1 million.
Hehe… Snopes! I presume you’ve seen this comic on xkcd?
Interesting… it seems that, everywhere I go… there is a “Lakes district”. I wonder which country had the best one?
Damn you, Moo! I came to the comments page to poop that anecdote party but you beat me to it!