Robert Douglass wrote:
 
>I'm asking for help in identifying three graphite objects recovered at
>an Overseas Chinese laborers domestic site at an 1870's California
>sawmill.  I've posted a picture of them at:
>
>http://www.sonic.net/~dougtr/graphitepage.html
 
Trish Fernandez replied:
 
>they look like
>pencil "lead" from a carpenter's pencil.
 
 
They do appear to be marking devices of some sort, but would not be the
carpenter's pencils found in hardware stores.  Carpenter's pencils will
have a rectangular lead rather than square, as the two different dimensions
are useful for scribing profiles for uneven joints.  The thin side (broad
side to the uneven face) for cuts along narrow gaps, and the broad side
(thin side to the uneven face) for deep and varied matches.  Many
carpenters use dividers to transfer the profile.  I never had much use for
one of the rectangular carpenter's pencils although they do hold up better
for marking cuts than regular #2 pencils which - as most field techs know -
are hard to keep at a point (go with mechanicals!!!!).  Carpenter's pencils
will not usually have a all over (on the end) wear as seen on your
examples, but, being encased in wood which was whittled away as necessary,
the edges of the graphite would have shave marks also.
 
The do appear, though, to be lumber or box marking pencils and the wear
pattern on the tips look much like that on the large crayons that are used
today.  The crayons are of similar dimensions and used to write info on the
boards in the grading process at mills, or can be used to label crates and
labels at a railroad depot or postal office (many an antique trunk still
bear the scrawled shipping instructions of long ago - and in graphite!)
 
Battery cores and "lime light" (as well as arc welder's) torches (diodes?)
are also made of graphite or purer forms of carbon, but they are always
round (as far as I know - corners would heat / charge unevenly) and will
have distinctive characteristics which I don't see on your pieces.  Battery
cores will come in flat ended crayon-sized rods (D size batteries) to 8 or
10 inch sticks that look like dynamite (from big monster wet jars?).  Some
have ridges, nubs on one end, and I have a feeling a myriad of other unique
forms.
 
Arc light and arc welder's carbon rods (through which the electricity
passes and sparks at a slight gap between two rods) will have melted or
pitted ends (one end only) and may have marks from their clamps and
electrical connections.
 
All can be extruded (a later innovation?) but I have seen all of these
things with mold seams showing that they must have been pressed between two
halves of a mold.
 
Dan W.