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#1 |
Lead Moderator European Armoury
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Some pure gold, some gold plated, some pure silver ...
From to 60 mm to 110 mm length. . |
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#2 |
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pencils (mechanical pencils)
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#3 |
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So that's the term i missed: mechanical (i knew the pencil part); thanks much Wayne.
I now see at Wiki that Americans call them mechanical and the Brits call them propelling. |
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#4 |
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![]() ![]() they originally used a lead (chemical symbol Pb - levar?) wire, that's why in english we call the central graphite that does the writing the 'pencil lead'. luckily they figured out that graphite worked better and left a darker lettering, and later found it was safer. bit more fragile, tho chewing on your pencil is a lot healthier. wears out faster tho. if you have one with a real lead centre, don't use it. romans used lead for plumbing pipes, the exposure level from it in alkaline water is low, but cumulative, they think rome declined in part from the side effects which includes reduced intelligence, reduced fertility, mental issues, strength, etc. Last edited by kronckew; 14th July 2017 at 07:41 PM. |
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#5 | ||||
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Some time ago i was dumb enough to offer as a gift a silver one that slided a pen, a pencil and an erasor blade. Quote:
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#6 |
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Very nice!
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#7 |
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I believe the pencils that use a push button at the end are called 'clutch pencils', the ones that extend the lead by turning a part of the barrel are called 'propelling pencils' --- at least in Australia that is so.
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#8 | |
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my google translator said the english noun for the metal Pb, 'lead' is 'levar' in portugese. stupid thing kept translating the word lead into a word that translated back as 'guided', as in you can lead a horse...etc. got the 'levar' bit from trying to translate lead poisoning. not too successfuly i gather. i know my periodic table by the way, and that Pb comes from the latin. it also occurs in the late roman throwing darts, plumbata, because they have a barbed steel point held to a vaned shaft of wood by a lead (plumbum again)weight cast around the join. soldiers have been throwing lead down-range for millenia (also slingers if you count slinging). they also used lead salts to 'sweeten' wine. probably not the best choice. (rome seems to have invented 'lawn darts' ![]() Last edited by kronckew; 15th July 2017 at 11:54 AM. |
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#9 | ||
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#10 | ||
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It looks as if the term lead is a multi meaning term; lead as for pista=track, lead as for levar=take (carry) something somewhere, lead as for guiding=leading the way, lead as for lead=leader=command and lead as for chumbo=metal (plumbum). Quote:
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#11 |
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Yes, your logic on naming sounds correct to me Fernando.
The push-button mechanism as "clutch-pencil" I'm pretty certain of because I have used one in drawing flowcharts during much of my life. One could say it is one of my tools of trade. |
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#12 |
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as an marine engineer from the USA, i went thru a couple semesters worth of drafting classes at the SUNY Maritime College. i also spent a couple years approving (and correcting) small passenger vessel construction drawings for the US Coast Guard before leaving and going into petrochemical plant construction management, where we also worked extensively with drawings, blueprints, piping isos, sketches. we always called them, if referring to them other than just 'pencils', as we used a lot of wooden ones, as 'mechanical' or 'mechanical drafting' pencils when ordering them. british usages vary tho. i gather from the ref. below that this still is true. i note in google.co.uk 'shopping' search they are listed as either 'mechanical' or occasionally as 'clutch' pencils. the ones listed as 'clutch' seem to use aifferent dia. leads. and are sometimes mentioned as 'artistic' drawing pencils. clutch pencils allow the lead to drop by gravity when you push the button at the top to extend out the tip, propelling ones grip and push it out a bit. both are 'mechanical'.
see also https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-di...hanical-pencil the ones designed for extensive use and the varying diameter 'leads' (actually graphite composites) required for drafting or artwork and 'regular ones like we used in schools and light business notations had better ergonomics, were sturdier, usually a bit longer too as they did not need to be carried in a shirt pocket. whatever you call them, they are still pencils. anecdote: the myth of the fischer space pen costing millions to develop for writing in zero gravity while the russians just used a pencil is untrue. bits of broken and conductive graphite floating around the delicate electronics would have led (another lead homophone - pun intended) to disaster. they bought and used fischer pens too. the use of the mundane pencil remains on the increase as it is cheap, and correctable by erasure, the other ink based devices less so. the simple wood exterior pencil still is made and sold in it's 15-20 billions annually, as are their mechanical brothers in somewhat lesser numbers. a parting factoid: Last edited by kronckew; 17th July 2017 at 09:59 AM. |
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#13 |
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My time in the army had its operational period, although nothing at all related with pencils but, instead, needles, syringes and morphine ampoules; go figure why they sent me to paramedics.
This is one of the cases where names of things between different cultures are of an idiomatic basis and not of strict translation. We call a linear pencil a lápis; from the Latin lapis (nominative), «pedra» (rock/stone) by the Italian lapis. What would be for us a mechanical pencil would be a lapiseira, an object of tubular or prismatic shape, made of metal or plastic, where a piece of lápis is adapted ... For the contents inside the common pencil we use the term craião, the same used to call a drawing or a art work made with the same naked graphite. I think (think) this is a galicism, from the french crayon. For the load (shaft) of lapiseiras we use the term mina, from the celtic mina «mineral», by the French mine. I remember in my youth lapiseiras were a selective accessory, only used by professionals and design students. A famous mark for quality was Swiss "Caran d'Ache". Attached a picture of an old small case of tubes with colour minas, from my miscellania collection. . |
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#14 |
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VULPOTLOOD..... in dutch
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#15 | |
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![]() isn't google translate and wiki wonderful ![]() Druckbleistift or Fallminenstift in german. and so forth...only about 6500 languages to go... |
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