some particularlyferocious weather struck the Lake. District inNorth West England in the sixteenth century,locals in the village of Borrowdale discoveredlarge uprooted tree. Underneath the tree layan unknown black substance which we noweasily, was slightly shiny and smooth to thetouch. And it left a black smear on the handsof all who touched it.

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Initially, the local farmers used the newlydiscovered material as a handy way toidentify their sheep. However, others quicklyrealised the potential for using this intriguingsubstance to write on paper. When it wasuntreated the material was very soft, whichmeant that it was messy to handle. To make itfit for use with paper, people enclosed a thincore of the substance in stiff sheep hides orrope. At this time chemistry was still in itsinfancy. People searched for a word todescribe this increasingly useful substanceand came up with plumbago which, in Latin,means acts or writes like lead. Later the namewas changed to graphite, But because wordshave remarkable staying power, we still callgraphite the lead of a pencil even though it isnow known that there is no trace of real leadin graphite.

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