The Secret Life of a Pencil

Kayla woke up with boiling enthusiasm bubbling over her. She was going to the pencil factory with her aunt today! "The secret life of a pencil," her aunt said. Kayla loved to learn about things!!

It was a beautiful sunny day without clouds in the pale blue summer sky. Kayla couldn’t keep still. “I can’t wait!” she gushed.

“I know you’ll love it,” Aunt Amy smiled.

The pencil factory was a large white building hidden among evergreen trees surrounding it. Kayla smelled metal as she walked in.

“A pencil starts off as cedar wood, graphite, clay, paint, castor oil, rubber, and aluminum. Cedar wood is a soft wood, which is needed because it’s easier to work with in machines, can be easily sharpened, and is strong enough to handle the pressure of writing. Graphite powder is mixed with clay to make the graphite stronger. Yellow paint is mixed with castor oil to make lacquer, which is used on pencils to protect the wood. Rubber is what makes the eraser and aluminum holds it on top. This factory gets incense cedar wood from the California Sierra Nevada Mountains. Graphite, clay, and aluminum come from China. Castor seeds and rubber come from Asia and Malaysia. The wood is shipped on flatbed trucks. Everything else comes by boat.” Aunt Amy talked excitedly.

The two started at the beginning of the line of machines. “There are different machines that do different things,” Aunt Amy explained. “First, they cut slats in the wood, then cut grooves, fill them with graphite and clay, and then apply glue and add more wood on top. Some paint and put on erasers. Others pack the pencils in boxes. People run the machines, test, and inspect the pencils for scratches or dents.”

“Can I learn about the engineers in this process?” Kayla asked. She watched a machine carve wooden panels into little channels.

“Of course! You like baking, don’t you?”

“Yes?” Kayla answered, confused.

“To make a cake, you need ingredients, instructions to follow, and tools to help, like stand mixers and an oven. Let's start with materials engineers. They study the structure and properties of materials to get a material to act a certain way. They put ingredients like flour and eggs together and see what happens.” Aunt Amy said, as they watched clay and graphite get mixed together and molded into slender cores.

“Next, let’s look at manufacturing engineers. They look at the layout and design of a process. They are the ones to design the steps of making the cake.”

“Now, for mechanical engineers. They are the ones that make the tools for the cake. A mechanical engineer designs, builds, and tests mechanical things.” The cores were now placed into the wood channels after getting heated.

“How does that all tie into pencil making?” Kayla asked.

“Think back to what I told you about the cake example. What do you think, Kayla?”

“I think the materials engineer studied the materials used in the pencil like how you said the graphite is mixed with clay to make it stronger,” Kayla said as glue was oozed into the pencil channel.

“That’s my girl!” Aunt Amy grinned. “How do you think a manufacturing engineer ties into pencil making?”

“I think the manufacturing engineer made up the steps for how the raw materials get made into pencils, and the mechanical engineer designs and makes the machines needed to make it happen,” Kayla said confidently as another wood panel got smooshed on top of the pencil channel.

“Awesome! Do you want to know another engineer that helps make the pencil?” Aunt Amy asked secretly.

“Spill it!” Kayla cried.

“I’m an industrial engineer. I improve process and systems,” Aunt Amy said proudly as a saw sliced through the panels, making individual pencils.

Kayla stared at her in awe.

“One time I had to go to this pencil factory because their process was slow. My group and I helped make their process faster. We made sure that the end product still had good quality,” Kayla’s aunt said as pencils were sanded to make them smooth.

The two walked in silence for a minute, watching pencils being tested and painted with lacquer.

“Well, Kayla, do you think the pencil is used for its intended use?” The pencils got their metal ferrule and pink eraser put on.

“I do. Today we use them for writing, besides a boy at my school and I were bored in class and pretended our pencils were swords.”

Aunt Amy laughed. She and Kayla watched the machines package up the pencils before the last step; shipping them in trucks to stores.

Kayla and her aunt walked outside to the car. Colors of pink, gold, and orange painted the sky. Kayla took her aunt’s hand. “Thank you for the wonderful day.”