Editing Graphite (section)

==History of use==
[[File:Kimmirut Graphite.jpg|thumb|Graphite plates and sheets, 10–15&nbsp;cm high; mineral specimen from [[Kimmirut]], Canada]]
In the 4th millennium [[BCE]], during the [[Neolithic]] Age in southeastern Europe, the [[Boian culture|Marița culture]] used graphite in a ceramic paint for decorating [[pottery]].<ref name="Cambridge">{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge ancient history, Volume 3, Part 1 |first=John |last=Boardman |chapter=The Neolithic-Eneolithic Period |pages=31–32 |isbn=978-0521224963 |chapter-url=http://home.lu.lv/~harijs/Macibu%20materiali%20,teksti/Cambrige%20Ancient%20History/Cambridge%20Ancient%20History%203.1.%20Balkans,%20Middle%20East%20&%20Aegean%20World%2010-8th%20c.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130225042733/http://home.lu.lv/~harijs/Macibu%20materiali%20%2Cteksti/Cambrige%20Ancient%20History/Cambridge%20Ancient%20History%203.1.%20Balkans%2C%20Middle%20East%20%26%20Aegean%20World%2010-8th%20c.pdf |archive-date=25 February 2013 }}</ref>

Sometime before 1565 (some sources say as early as 1500), an enormous deposit of graphite was discovered on the approach to [[Grey Knotts]] from the hamlet of [[Seathwaite, Allerdale|Seathwaite]] in [[Borrowdale|Borrowdale parish]], [[Cumbria]], [[England]], which the locals found useful for marking sheep.<ref name="norgate">{{cite web
|url=http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/webmap/thelakes/html/lgaz/lk00976.htm
|title=Old Cumbria Gazetteer, black lead mine, Seathwaite
|year=2008
|author=Norgate, Martin |author2=Norgate, Jean |publisher=Geography Department, Portsmouth University
|access-date=2008-05-19}}</ref><ref name="wainwright_western">{{cite book|title=A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, Western Fells
|author=Wainwright, Alfred |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BbYQmWu8OfEC&pg=RA1-PT16
|year=2005
|isbn=978-0-7112-2460-5|publisher=Frances Lincoln|location=London
}}</ref> During the reign of [[Elizabeth I]] (1558–1603), Borrowdale graphite was used as a [[refractory]] material to line molds for cannonballs, resulting in rounder, smoother balls that could be fired farther, contributing to the strength of the English navy. This particular deposit of graphite was extremely pure and soft, and could easily be cut into sticks. Because of its military importance, this unique mine and its production were strictly controlled by the Crown.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Account of the Black Lead Mine in Borrowdale | journal =Memoir of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, Ser. 2 | volume = 3| date = 1819 | url = https://www.google.com/books?id=Cpj3h3tcnSsC |access-date=6 April 2025 | first = Jonathan | last = Otley | page =168-175}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Statutes at Large: From the ... Year of the Reign of ... to the ... Year of the Reign of ..|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eaRFAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA415|year=1764|page=415}}</ref>

During the 19th century, graphite's uses greatly expanded to include stove polish, lubricants, paints, crucibles, foundry facings, and [[pencil]]s, a major factor in the expansion of educational tools during the first great rise of education for the masses.  The British Empire controlled most of the world's production (especially from Ceylon), but production from Austrian, German, and American deposits expanded by mid-century.  For example, the Dixon Crucible Company of Jersey City, New Jersey, founded by [[Joseph Dixon (inventor)|Joseph Dixon]] and partner [[Orestes Cleveland]] in 1845, opened mines in the Lake Ticonderoga district of New York, built a processing plant there, and a factory to manufacture pencils, crucibles and other products in New Jersey, described in the ''Engineering & Mining Journal'' 21 December 1878.  The Dixon pencil is still in production.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dixonusa.com/history.html|title = History|archive-date = 7 April 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180407053901/http://www.dixonusa.com/history.html|website= Dixon Ticonderoga Company }}</ref>
[[File:“Orgy of the Growl Devils “ “Graphited Wood Grease” 1908 ad - Electric railway review (IA electricrailwayr19amer) (page 50 crop).jpg|thumb|upright|Graphited Wood Grease 1908 ad in the Electric Railway Review]]
The beginnings of the revolutionary [[froth flotation]] process are associated with graphite mining.  Included in the ''E&MJ'' article on the Dixon Crucible Company is a sketch of the "floating tanks" used in the age-old process of extracting graphite.  Because graphite is so light, the mix of graphite and waste was sent through a final series of water tanks where a cleaner graphite "floated" off, which left waste to drop out.  In an 1877 patent, the two brothers Bessel (Adolph and August) of Dresden, Germany, took this "floating" process a step further and added a small amount of oil to the tanks and boiled the mix – an agitation or frothing step – to collect the graphite, the first steps toward the future flotation process.  Adolph Bessel received the Wohler Medal for the patented process that upgraded the recovery of graphite to 90% from the German deposit.  In 1977, the German Society of Mining Engineers and Metallurgists organized a special symposium dedicated to their discovery and, thus, the 100th anniversary of flotation.<ref name = nguyen>{{cite book|last1=Nguyen|first1=Ahn|title=Colloidal Science of Flotation|date=2003|isbn= 978-0824747824 |pages=11|publisher=CRC Press }}</ref>

In the United States, in 1885, Hezekiah Bradford of Philadelphia patented a similar process, but it is uncertain if his process was used successfully in the nearby graphite deposits of Chester County, Pennsylvania, a major producer by the 1890s.  The Bessel process was limited in use, primarily because of the abundant cleaner deposits found around the globe, which needed not much more than hand-sorting to gather the pure graphite.  The state of the art, {{circa|1900}}, is described in the Canadian Department of Mines report on graphite mines and mining when Canadian deposits began to become important producers of graphite.<ref name = nguyen/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Cirkel|first1=Fritz|title=Graphite its Properties, Occurrence, Refining and Uses|date=1907|publisher=Canadian Department of Mines|location=Ottawa|page=passim|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=IQXOAAAAMAAJ&q=Bessel+graphite&pg=PA218 |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref>

=== Other names {{anchor|Plumbago}} ===
[[File:Crane’s Servants Friend series no. 3.jpg|thumb|upright|Advert for Crane's Black Lead, c. 1905]]
Historically, graphite was called '''black lead''' or '''plumbago'''.<ref name=Brit/><ref>{{Cite book
| series = Spons' Workshop Receipts Vol. II: Dyeing to Japanning
| publisher = Spon
| title = Electro-Plating on Non-Metallic Substances
| year = 1921
| page = 132
}}</ref> Plumbago was commonly used in its [[crystal habit#Massive|massive]] mineral form. Both of these names arise from confusion with the similar-appearing [[lead]] ores, particularly [[galena]]. The Latin word for lead, ''[[plumbum]]'', gave its name to the English term for this grey metallic-sheened mineral and even to the leadworts or [[plumbago]]s, plants with flowers that resemble this colour.

The term ''black lead'' usually refers to a powdered or processed graphite, matte black in color.

[[Abraham Gottlob Werner]] coined the name ''graphite'' ("writing stone") in 1789. He attempted to clear up the confusion between molybdena, plumbago and black lead after [[Carl Wilhelm Scheele]] in 1778 proved that these were at least three different minerals. Scheele's analysis showed that the chemical compounds [[molybdenum sulfide]] ([[molybdenite]]), [[lead(II) sulfide]] ([[galena]]) and graphite were three different soft black minerals.<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1111/j.1467-968X.1908.tb00513.x | title = V.— the Meanings and Synonyms of Plumbago | year = 1908 | last1 = Evans | first1 = John W. | journal = Transactions of the Philological Society | volume = 26 | issue = 2 | pages = 133–179| url = https://zenodo.org/record/2111957 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author= Widenmann, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm |title= Handbuch des oryktognostischen Theils der Mineralogie: Mit einer Farbentabelle und einer Kupfertafel|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9QxQAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA653|year= 1794|publisher=Crusius|page= 653}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite journal
| author = Scheele, C. W. K.
| title = Versuche mit Wasserbley; Molybdaena 
| journal = Svenska Vetensk. Academ. Handlingar
| page = 238
| year = 1779
| volume = 40
| url = http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/load/img/?PPN=PPN324352840_0040
}}
</ref>