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Inside the Factory
E8 of 9
About
Episode Guide
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Series 4 - Episode 8
Pencils
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Review
by
David Brown
Gregg Wallace’s world is rocked when he finds out that pencils are made from graphite. You can almost hear the cogs of his brain wheezing to a halt as he’s forced to mentally erase all the “lead in your pencil” puns he was going to make. And the surprises keep coming: “Haitch B – haitch means hard and B means black?!” A warning now – he says “haitch” instead of “aitch”. A lot. So be prepared if that grinds your gears.
But keep watching because there are interesting topics up for discussion. For instance: is there any value in graphology? (None, according to a professor from Goldsmiths.) And how can handwriting survive in an age of laptops, smartphones and tablets?
Summary
Gregg Wallace visits a German pencil factory, learning that the main material in a pencil is not lead but graphite. Cherry Healey examines the properties of graphite, discovering that if a single layer is stripped of atoms from its surface, a new material known as graphene is made. Thin and virtually invisible, embedding this in phone screens might mean that in future they can be rolled up. Historian Ruth Goodman finds documents that show the death of handwriting has been prematurely announced on many occasions, dating right back to the invention of the printing press.
Cast & Crew
Presenter
Gregg Wallace
Presenter
Cherry Healey
Contributor
Ruth Goodman
Executive Producer
Jenny Midl
Executive Producer
Sanjay Singhal
Producer
Phillip Smith
Producer
Sam Bailey
Series Director
Michael Rees
Series Producer
Amanda Lyon
see more
Documentary
Education
Full Episode Guide
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