Pencil
the printed labeling
lacquer
wood
graphite lead
a bit of metal
an eraser
The cedar logs are cut into small, pencil length slats less than one-fourth of an inch in thickness. These are kiln dried and then tinted for the same reason women put rouge on their faces.
a tree, a cedar of straight grain that grows in Northern California and Oregon
the saws and trucks and rope and the countless other gear
Think of all the persons and the numberless skills that went into their fabrication: the mining of ore, the making of steel and its refinement into saws, axes, motors; the growing of hemp and bringing it through all the stages to heavy and strong rope; the logging camps with their beds and
mess halls, the cookery and the raising of all the foods.
.
clay from Mississippi
The graphite is mined in Ceylon [Sri Lanka]
animal fats chemically reacted with sulfuric acid
wax from Mexico
the growers of castor beans
the refiners of castor oil
resins
formed by applying heat to carbon black
shiny sheet brass
zinc
copper
rape-seed oil
sulfur chloride