All language subtitles for Inside.the.Factory.S04E08.Pencils.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

[music playing]

Forget the digital wizardry
of the keyboard and the tablet.

You can't beat the
simplicity of the pencil.

Which explains why we still
buy more than 180 million

of them every year.

Not bad for a
400-year-old invention.

[chuckles]

We've come to Germany to
find out how they're made.

To the factory of the
oldest pencil manufacturer

in the world.

[triumphant music]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
Whether you sharpen yours

to the finest of
points or to the end,

we've all grown up with this
classic writing instrument.

[laughs]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
I'm Gregg Wallace.

Whoa, I feel like Uri Geller.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
And the sharp end

of German engineering--

Those pencils are almost
falling over those blades.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): --is
rewriting everything I thought

I knew about pencil production.

I'm beginning to understand
there is a bottom and a top.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
I'm Cherry Healey.

Wow.

Oh, my goodness,
that's so bright.

CHERRY HEALEY
(VOICEOVER): I'm taking

a close up look at the
mind blowing mineral

at the heart of every pencil.

CHERRY HEALTY: It looks
like shards of glass.

OK, is that a good jug?

- GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
- -and creating

my own colorful crayons.

Woo!

You're kidding me.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
And historian Ruth

Goodman sketches out
the surprising origins

of this simple tool.

RUTH GOODMAN: Write with a rock.

Yes.

[laughs] That's
amazing, isn't it?

GREGG WALLACE: Over
the next 24 hours

this factory will
produce 600,000 pencils.

And this is the fascinating
story of how they get

the lead into every single one.

Welcome to "Inside
the Factory."

[theme music]

[music playing]

This is the
Faber-Castell Factory

near Nuremberg in Germany.

Pencils have been rolling
off the production line

here for more than 250 years.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
This old factory

is unlike any I visited before.

And for once, I get a break
from my usual hairnets.

It's packed with
bespoke machines

that craft premium pencils in
all colors, shapes, and sizes.

But today, we follow
the production of

their classic green HP pencil.

The factory straddles the
River Rednitz in the South

German town of Stein.

The raw materials arrive
on an 18th century

street in the bustling town.

And the company's newest
recruit, Lucas Totler,

is here to meet
today's delivery.

- Lucas.
- Hi.

Gregg.

I've come to find out
about pencil making.

This is the place to come.

This is where we make pencils.

GREGG WALLACE:
What's on that lorry?

On here, we have
the graphite in bags

that go into our pencil lead.

And then you add
lead to the graphite?

We don't.

There has never been a metal
lead in the pencil lead.

Listen here, my friend.

We know for a fact that
pencils are made out of lead.

No?

LUCAS: No, has been graphite
since pencil making started.

OK, I trust you.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): 20 bags

of graphite powder are taken
through this historic factory

intake area.

How many pencils would you
make out of that graphite?

Over a million just
with this one delivery.

Over a million pencils--

Over a 1,000,000 pencils--

- -from that graphite?

- -from that graphite.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): The powder

is walked 50 meters through
to the measuring room

for weighing.

And, as the first
bag is slashed open,

our pencil production begins.

This is the graphite, right?

Part of it is.

Bottom half, that's
the graphite.

But we also need clay
for our HB pencil.

And this is what we
have here as well.

Clay?

Clay because the
graphite is giving

the pencil its
color and the clay

is giving the pencil
its structure.

So we want clay
in there as well.

Lucas, what exactly
is graphite, please?

Graphite is basically carbon.

So if you have charcoal
when barbecuing at home,

that's basically
the same thing in a

different molecular structure.

GREGG WALLACE: This
good looking gentleman

over here with the shaved
head and the glasses,

what's he doing?

LUCAS TOTLER: He is mixing
the graphite and the clay

in the proper ratio to get
the pencil which we want.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
They make 16 different grades

of pencil leads here from soft
and dark to hard and light,

depending on the ratio
of graphite to clay.

LUCAS TOTLER: With
more clay, you'd

be moving more towards the 6h--

H standing for
hard, in that case.

H means hard?

H means hard.

What does B mean?

Black.

It means black.

Really?

Because the pencil
writes blacker.

HB-- B means
black, H means hard?

Exactly.

I've seen those letters
on a pencil all my life--

For ages.

- -and never knew.

OK.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): We need

a 50/50 mix of clay and
graphite for our batch

of hard, black pencils.

We follow it into mixing where
the machines look familiar,

even if the messy
materials don't.

So what is that?

I'm guessing some sort of mixer.

JUCAS TOTLER: Huge
KitchenAid in which

we start putting together
the graphite and the clay,

adding some water.

And this is where we
compose the mixture

making up the pencil lead.

Is he just gonna hose it in?

LUCAS TOTLER: Pretty much, yeah.

How?

[laughs] Very good.

So is that going to deliver
just the exact amount of water?

Yes, it is.

We're not working with
guesstimates here.

We're working precise.

GREGG WALLACE: That
looks like volcanic ash.

That looks like a
volcano about to erupt.

[suspenseful music]

How many pencils
is that gonna make?

250 kilos will make about
200,000 different pencils.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
The massive mixer

has an equally heavy
weight lead to seal

in the powder and water.

It'll take two hours of heating
and stirring to combine them.

This traditional method
dates back around 200 years.

But pencils themselves
go back a little further.

Ruth sketches out the
story of their invention.

[music playing]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER):
Since the dawn of civilization,

humans have been making marks
with all kinds of instruments.

But the pencil is
relatively recent.

And it began here in
the Lake District.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER):
I'm in the Borrowdale Valley

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER):
I'm in the Borrowdale Valley

to meet author and
stationery fan James Ward.

[laughs] What a wonderful
place you've chosen.

RUTH GOODMAN
(VOICEOVER): The story

begins in the 16th century, in
a field around here where monks

were looking after some sheep.

At some point,
there was a big storm.

And it knocked down
one of these trees.

Underneath it, the
monks discovered

some strange material.

And it was this stuff, graphite.

Oh, right.

Well, it does initially just
look like a rock, doesn't it?

But look, already something
odd has happened with my hands.

Well, that's exactly
what they realized as well.

[laughs]

And maybe if you want to try--

OK.

- -and make a
mark on that paper.

See if I can
write with a rock.

Oh, I am.

Well, yes.

JAMES WARD: Take the
tippy bit and write.

Yeah.

That's amazing,
isn't it, to be

able to just pick a rock out of
the ground and write with it?

RUTH GOODMAN
(VOICEOVER): The monks

had stumbled across a
deposit of pure graphite,

which they misidentified
as a type of lead,

a name that stuck.

By carving the
graphite into sticks

and wrapping it in
string, it became

a handy new tool, the pencil.

RUTH GOODMAN: It's a
very simple and easy

thing to use, isn't it?

No fuss.

No mess.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER):
The innovation took off,

and the nearby town of
Keswick became world

famous for its
pencils, developing

a valuable trade with Europe.

No one else had graphite
as pure as ours.

So when we went to war
with France in 1793,

its sale was strictly
embargoed, which

surprisingly was a
bit of an annoyance

to the French military.

RUTH GOODMAN: Why were
the French so worried

about not having pencils?

Well, if you think about
it, if you're in a war,

you've got your maps.

You're planning where
your troops are.

They're moving
around all the time.

RUTH GOODMAN: Yeah.

But if you're doing that
in pen, pretty soon the map

would be unreadable.

But with pencil,
you can rub it out.

RUTH GOODMAN: Oh, I see.

But the French didn't have
much graphite, did they?

Well, they did have some.

But it wasn't of great
quality or quantity.

That's where this guy comes in.

RUTH GOODMAN: Oh, he's an
interesting looking chap.

Yeah, Nicolas-Jacques Conté.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER):
Nicolas-Jacques Conté was

a talented artist and inventor.

He worked out that you didn't
need sticks of pure borrowdale

graphite to make pencils.

James and I are going
to follow his method.

JAMES WARD: So we've
got kaolin, which

is a sort of fine clay powder--

Yeah.

Fuller's earth, which
is also clay, and then

graphite here on the end.

I love the way this looks.

It's got a sort of
shininess to it.

So we need 20 grams.

20.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER):
Contre discovered

that by mixing low quality
powdery French graphite

with clay, he could
make a good pencil

without relying on
the treasured graphite

from the Lake District.

OK.

Make sure you
don't lick the spoon.

RUTH GOODMAN:
[laughs] It definitely

got the color of
that one associates

with the lead of a
pencil, isn't it?

And it's not black.

It's sort of--

It's that sort of silver gray.

- -silver gray.

But it's still got that
sort of shine and shimmer

from the graphite as well.

Yeah.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER):
We roll our graphite mix

into pencil leads and then bake
them in the oven at 230 degrees

C.

Who knew that's
all you needed?

I think we should
wash our hands.

I think we should
wash our hands.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): 20
minutes later, they're ready.

JAMES WARD: Should we try it?

Should we give it a go?

Ooh, loo at that.

Let me grab-- is it-- yes.
All right.

It behaves like a--

I can hold it like a pencil.

Does it write?

[gasps] It does.

Look at that.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER):
Conté's methods

were quickly adopted.

The old technique of
using solid graphite

was consigned to history.

And the modern pencil was born.

This is a very long one.

Wow.

That's pretty good, isn't it?

That is pretty cool.

So simple.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): In Germany,

I'm following Conté's
method making what we

all wrongly call
lead on a much larger

scale in the mixing room.

Our 250 kilograms of
graphite clay and water mix

has been heated and
stirred for two hours.

Whoa, I never expected that.

That looks to me like
a lunar landscape.

I've still got no idea how
you get that into a pencil.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
To find out how they turn

these metallic space rocks
into thin pencil leads,

I'm following them through
to the extrusion room

where they're shoveled
into a giant steel press.

GREGG WALLACE: I mean, that
seems like a very big machine

to make a little pencil.

It looks like an
enormous piston.

Is that what it's doing,
pushing it through?

It really is pushing the
mixture through the dye

into the shape of
the pencil lead.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
A meter long piston squeezes

the soft graphite and clay mix
through a single 2 millimeter

hole, spurting it out like
spaghetti then cutting

it every 18.5 centimeters.

GREGG WALLACE: Tons of machinery
and an enormous great piston

just to squeeze these
tiny thin little tubes out

of little holes.

LUCAS TOTLER: Yup.

It seems a big oversized job
for a result that's so tiny.

And that is now the
inside of a pencil, right?

LUCAS TOTLER: That is
the inside of the pencil.

That's the lead.

Can I pick one up?

Sure, go ahead.

[chuckles]

Whoa, I feel like Uri Geller.

I didn't expect that.

Why is it so soft?

Because there's still water in
there, what we put in earlier.

GREGG WALLACE: Can I stay here
and play for a little while?

I'm afraid not.

We've got to make pencils.

Good?

Good.

So what's the next step?

You grab one of those,
put the leads inside,

and then put it into the dryer.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): We've made

enough leads for 200,000 HBs.

But nobody wants a bendy pencil.

So we're carefully
loading our soft strands

into perforated drying tins.

Good?

OK?

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
About 300 leads

go into each one, leaving plenty
of room for air to circulate.

So this dryer here,
that is just to get

rid of the water content?

That's just to get
rid of the water.

How long?

About 2 and 1/2 hours.

[german]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
They're dried gently

at around 100 degrees Celsius.

The water needs to come
out because next they're

going into a blast furnace.

And if there's moisture
in the pencil leads,

they could explode.

The temperature in here
is over 1,000 degrees

C. That's close to the
melting point of gold.

GREGG WALLACE: Now
you're cooking.

Cooking on gas?

Cooking with gas.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): They're

baked for three hours, which
strengthens the clay inside.

Then they're cooled.

And I'm expecting
that after all that

mixing, drying, and
baking, our leads must

be ready to go into pencils.

But apparently not.

Take one of
these, for instance.

Yeah?

That's the pencil lead from
the kiln that we've just fired.

And we now have
tiny pockets of air

in this piece of pencil lead.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
That intense heat

has a side effect, creating
microscopic holes in the pencil

leads, giving them
a rough texture.

And if you were to write
with this specific piece,

it would scratch, destroy the
paper, and not be a lot of fun.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
Fortunately, they've

got a solution to this problem.

We have liquid, hot wax
to go into the pencil lead.

And we fill those tiny
pockets of air with wax.

What?

Wax.

All right, It does
sound a little bit odd.

So ready when you are.

Feel free to drop the
leads into the wax.

OK, thank you very much.

I feel honored.

[music playing]

Extraordinary.

Absolutely extraordinary.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): The wax

fills the tiny
air holes, helping

the leads to write smoothly.

I would never imagined
a bar full of hot wax.

In a pencil factory.

Anywhere, to be honest.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): Now the lead

is deep fried, or rather hot
waxed, to thoroughly fill

every jagged edge.

Every element going into these
delicate sticks is vital.

But there's only one real star.

You can't make a
pencil without graphite.

But as Cherry is discovering,
this mineral has made

its mark in more ways than one.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
I've come to the University

of Manchester,
where Dr. Sarah Haag

is studying the magic
material inside every pencil.

CHERRY HEALEY: Wow.

What is this place?

Welcome to one of our scanning
electron microscopy labs.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
We're using Sarah's electron

microscope to take an extremely
close look at a pencil lead

to understand how it works.

That is absolutely
mind-blowing.

It kind of looks like
a mountain range.

SARAH HAAG: Should we zoom in
so we can see the graphite?

Definitely.

Look at that is
absolutely incredible.

It looks like shards of glass.

So at this resolution, we
can see the individual pieces

of graphite.

CHERRY HEALEY: So
these individual shards

are what break off and
slide onto the paper

creating the pencil mark?

Yes.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
Next, we analyze how

this graphite sticks to paper.

SARAH HAAG: So what we're
looking at on the screen now

is a pencil trace
across a piece of paper.

The roughness of
the paper has almost

captured some of the graphite.

SARAH HAAG: Yep.

So the pieces of graphite will
be transferred onto the paper.

If we zoom in now, we can
see the individual pieces

of graphite.

CHERRY HEALEY: Oh,
my goodness me.

That's absolutely amazing.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
But making marks on paper

is only one of graphite's
special powers.

So we're going to
make the electricity

pass between these
two graphite rods.

CHERRY HEALEY: So those are
two tiny sticks of graphite?

Yeah, that's what you
get inside a pencil.

CHERRY HEALEY: And
now you're passing

electricity through them?

SARAH HAAG: That's right.

And then we bring
them close together.

CHERRY HEALEY: Wow,
that's so bright.

SARAH HAAG: So the current that
we're seeing is like lightning.

The graphite that we
use here-- because it's

a fantastic electrical
conductivity--

is used in all kinds of
applications, like batteries.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
If you have a smartphone,

a laptop, or a hybrid car,
its lithium ion battery

probably relies on graphite.

That's absolutely amazing.

That's just the same graphite as
you would find inside a pencil?

SARAH HAAG: Yeah, absolutely.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
And that's not all.

SARAH HAAG: This is
just an ordinary pencil.

And we've sharpened
it at both ends.

You can see that it's heating
up because the pencil wood has

a much lower temperature that it
will survive than the graphite.

CHERRY HEALEY: That was amazing.

The wood completely
gone, incinerated.

And yet the graphite is intact.

The graphite can withstand
a huge amount of heat.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
Graphite is heat

resistant to over
3,000 degrees Celsius,

which is why it's used
to contain the molten

metal in steel mills.

So it's really
impressive stuff.

Yes.

Graphite conducts electricity
fantastically well.

It's a really good
conductor of heat.

And it's great for pencils.

Absolutely.

It's amazing stuff.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
At the pencil factory,

the lead spindles that will
go into our classic HBs

have had a nice bath
to rinse off the wax.

10 hours and 23 minutes in,
they're wrapped in paper

and sent across the river to
the larger woodwork factory.

The raw pencil room is
their first stop, where I'm

meeting engineer Ziggy Blost.

Ziggy?

Hello.

- Gregg.
- Hello.

Nice to meet you.

Good to meet you.

I've got my lead.

This I take it is the wood.

What wood do you use?

Well, you can use
different kinds of wood.

This, for example,
is linden wood.

More important are the
properties of the wood.

They have to be very
finely structured.

So when you sharpen the
pencil, a flake should come off

instead of pieces breaking out.

And it should be stable in form.

So when the pencil
is lying in the sun,

it should not bend
like a banana.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): Ziggy's wood

comes from sustainable
straight grain

trees like Linden and cedar.

The blocks arrive pre-cut
in 8 by 18 centimeter slats.

The trees grow over the road.

And they were cut into slats
of the length of a pencil

and half the
thickness of a pencil.

I understand the
wood for the pencil.

I've just got no idea how
that becomes a pencil.

Well, that I can show
you in the next room.

Please.

[music playing]

Right.

Now what happens to
our pieces of wood?

Now these leads
go into the machine

to be smoothed to the surface
and insert small grooves.

GREGG WALLACE: So that is just
cutting grooves in the wood?

That's right.

But that's very important
because that's where we

fill in the leads afterwards.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
The slats rush along nose

to tail through sanding.

Then, under rotating blades,
which carve out channels,

one millimeter deep.

ZIGGY BLOST: Now you
can see the grooves.

GREGG WALLACE: So
there are 1, 2, 3, 4--

9 grooves in here.

Does that mean nine pencils?

Exactly, that's what
you-- what we get.

Now here you can see
these leads coming

out with the grooves inserted.

And here, next very important
step, a thin line of glue

is filled into the grooves.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
A strong but elastic glue

is applied to the entire
length of each slat, which will

hold the leads firmly in place.

Now here the sleds are
split up into two parts.

Yeah, that's like a paddle.
ZIGGY BLOST: Right.

Right.

GREGG WALLACE: It's
taking every second slat

and knocking it over
to the outside lane.

ZIGGY BLOST: Exactly.

I'm beginning to
understand there is a bottom

and a top to this pencil.

- Exactly.
- It's basically--

The same.

- -split in half.

Right, right.

It's made of two halves.

But it's done so
precisely, when you sharpen

the pencil at the
end you wouldn't see

that it consists of two parts.

Ziggy, is it not possible
to get blocks of wood,

drill a hole in the middle,
and just put lead in there?

You can't drill
a hole so straight

that the lead would fit in.

It would be sort of wavy.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
The top and bottom of our wood

and glue sandwiches
are sent round

for their special
graphite and clay filling.

That's my lead.

Right.

That's my lead
that's been in the wax.

Right, OK.

So these leads are coming
down here onto this big wheel.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The
wheel picks up the lead sticks.

And as the slats travel
along the conveyor,

it drops them neatly
into the gluey grooves.

GREGG WALLACE: Well,
there you have it--

your nine grooves, right,
and your nine bits of lead

perfectly glued in.

Right.

All right.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
Now the top slices,

with their empty grooves,
are moved into position

so they line up precisely
with the bottoms

and are glued together.

And here the tops
lead comes over

to form sort of a sandwich.

Right?

The problem is there's,
like, a clear separation here.

There's a clear gap between
these two bits of wood.

We get rid of this
separation in the next part

of the machine.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
100 multi-pencil sandwiches

are stacked up in the drying
chamber at around 60 degrees

C. A vise squeezes
them together.

Then they're slowly rotated
so the glue dries evenly.

How many pencils
have we got in there?

About 40,000 pencils,
approximately 40,000 pencils.

40,000 pencils.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Soon
thousands of people of all ages

and from all walks of
life could be using

these pencils for
drawing and writing

in their own unique style.

In the raw pencil room,
my wooden sandwiches

have been drawing in a
rotating vise for an hour.

Once released from the
clamp, the sandwiches

waltz away on conveyor belts.

Each one is trimmed to
exactly 175 millimeters.

The standard length of a
pencil is exactly seven inches.

Why?

Well, that's convenient.

It's long enough to be able
to sharpen a couple of times.

But it's not so long that
it bends your hand back

when you're writing.

Seven inches, but it will
get shorter as it gets older.

Right.

That is smooth like
a green grocer's head.

Right, right.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
The trimmed slats

head into the shaping machine.

And 10 seconds later, individual
pencils emerge nine at a time.

Hey!

Hey!

Ziggy, we got pencils!

Right.

We have got pencils.

May I?

They are perfect hexagonals.

The last time I saw
them, they were--

they were an oblong block.

ZIGGY BLOST: Right.

How have they
become that shape?

I can show you
inside the machine,

we have a rotating
wheels, knives

that rotated a very high speed.

And you can see the knives at
the cross-section of a pencil.

I can clearly see the
groove, the hexagonal shape.

Why hexagonal shape?

They avoid the disadvantage
of a round pencil

to roll off the
table and fall down.

Round ones roll off the table?

Right.

Is that honestly why?

There are so many
things I didn't

know about the ridiculously
simple pencil, but it's genius.

It is.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The
helpfully hexagonal pencils are

carried into the
painting room where

they're stacked onto conveyors.

I like that.

I think that's a
really good sight.

That to me, because of the
shape, looks like honeycomb.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
These raw pencils

are about to receive
their coats of honor--

a dark green shade of
paint chosen back in 1905

when this pencil was designed.

Do you know why it's green?

I mean, it's a classic.

But why is it green?

Well, that's an old story.

Alexander from Faber-Castell, he
was originally a military man.

And he remembered that the color
of the uniforms of his regiment

was what he called
military green.

And he thought it
might be a good idea

to apply it to his pencils.

If you paint them,
where do you hold it?

It must be on a clamp somewhere.

No, it doesn't have to.

Let's go around the corner.

I'll show you.

[music playing]

You can see here, the color
is inside these boxes.

And the pencils are pushed
through and pick up colors.

You are just pushing those
pencils through a tin of paint?

So that's not green.

ZIGGY BLOST: That's the primer.

GREGG WALLACE: You're puttin
a primer on exactly the same

as we will paint a door at home?

Right.

Exactly the same.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
Two layers of primer go on.

And then, one by
one, our pencils

receive their traditional
military top coats.

GREGG WALLACE: That's a lovely,
rich green color, isn't it?

ZIGGY BLOST: Right.

GREGG WALLACE: How
many coats did it get?

Four coats of green.

Four?

Four.

So altogether six
layers of color.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
My little green soldiers

march into a heated tunnel,
which helps their coats dry.

Finally, a shiny lacquer is
added that will act as armor

against any chips or scratches.

The ends of the pencils are
sanded to remove excess paint.

Then there's some ceremonial
polishing to be done.

What are you doing, Ziggy?

Are you decorating your pencils?

No.

We are printing or
embossing the pencils.

It's a stamp, you know?

And whatever you want
to have on your pencil,

it's written on the stamp.

And it pushes on the foil,
warms it up a little bit,

and leaves the
mark on the pencil.

Here we print the
barcode on the pencil.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): The heat

sticks the white plastic
barcode along one edge.

The next two machines are
loaded with plastic, backed

with gold colored aluminum.

The pencils are
swiveled 120 degrees

to print the name in gold.

Then they're turned again
for Made in Germany.

We print it on one end.

And you start sharpening
the pencil on the other end.

Is that why all
the information

is down the blunt end?

Of course, of course.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The
pencils have been decorated.

And Ziggy can't wait to tell
me about the crowning glory

that awaits our classic HBs.

But Cherry is waxing
lyrical about another writing

implement.

[music playing]

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
Making a colorful mark

is one of the first things
children learn to do.

My weapon of choice for coloring
when I was a toddler and now

actually if I'm honest was
one of these, a wax crayon.

As a parent, these vibrant
colors brighten up my world.

But how are they made?

I'm in South Hampton
visiting the UK's

best selling children's crayon
manufacturer, Stadium Crayons.

Last year, this small
factory turned out 25

million little sticks of joy.

General Manager Dave Ayling
is here to explain the magic.

So are you gonna show
me how it's done then?

I'm not gonna show
you how it's done.

I'm gonna let you
make them yourself.

Oh, that's how it goes.

Oh, yes.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): The
life of the wax crayon begins

as you might expect, with wax.

DAVE AYLING: This is paraffin
wax, which is derived from oil.

And it also can be
used in candles.

So paraffin pellets.

Is that it?

The wax is only about
50% of the crayon.

We have this stearic
acid, a fatty acid

that is derived from plants
similar to vegetable oil.

This actually softens
the wax enough to help

it to draw on paper better.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
The first step

is to blend these two
ingredients together

in a huge 1,200 liter heater.

It's maintained at a constant
temperature of 120 degrees,

which ensures that once
the mixture is melted,

it stays melted.

There's just one
more ingredient

to go in at this stage,
and that is called PEG.

What is PEG?

PEG is actually a polymer,
which has a low melting point.

And it helps the
color take to the wax.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
PEG, or polyethylene glycol,

also makes the
crayons water soluble,

a big help when it
comes to washing

them off the walls at home.

CHERRY HEALEY: Into
our big crayony mix.

And there we have it.

[music playing]

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
With the big melt in progress

I head to the paint
shed, where Jim Belbin

can create any color from just
a small number of powdered dyes.

So what color crayon
are we making today?

We're making
red today, Cherry.

And I imagine if you're making
a red crayon, you need red dye.

But we have to make
two shades of red

in order to get the
red that we make here.

CHERRY HEALEY
(VOICEOVER): We wear masks

to keep the non-toxic but
superfine pigments out

of our lungs and start scooping
600 grams of bright scarlet

and 200 grams of
a darker base red.

It'll give us that perfect
tone for coloring in tomatoes.

All I need now is that hot wax.

Oh, my goodness.

It looks like water.

JIM BELBIN: This hot wax
has got to go into the mold.

I'll take the light one.

Lucky I work out.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
They've certainly

got me pulling my weight.

First, I pour the liquid wax
into a kind of heavy cauldron.

CHERRY HEALEY: Just like this?

JIM BELBIN: Yeah.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
It holds 40 liters.

And then I pour in
our red powder blend--

CHERRY HEALEY: That
is so beautiful.

- CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
- -enough for 10,000 crayons.

And then I give it a good whisk.

This tank actually keeps the
wax up 110 degrees centigrade.

It's really molten
the whole way through.

Now there's one
final ingredient.

What is this stuff?

Well, it's essentially
chalk powder.

CHERRY HEALEY: So first you
add something to soften it.

And then you add something
to make it harder.

JIM BELBIN: Yes.

Well, if we don't add
this when they're set,

they can become quite brittle.
CHERRY HEALEY: Here we go.

Hey! Woo!
Hey! Woo!

Do I get the job?

JIM BELBIN: No, no.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
I'm ready to turn

my concoction into
crayons using this metal

mold, which has 960 holes.

CHERRY HEALEY: How do you
get this boiling hot wax

into those molds?

Well, it's really technical.

We use a jug.

CHERRY HEALEY: OK,
is that a good jug?

Oh, it's very splashy.

Am I doing it right?

JIM BELBIN: Yeah, they
all need to be filled up.

So we can now start to move the
wax around as it cools down.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
Cold water circulating around

the back of the mold
helps bring the heat

down from over 100 degrees
to around room temperature.

It's a tricky balance,
making sure all

the crayons are solid
with no air holes

before the wax hardens.

We can normally do
about 60 batches here.

So we make about 60,000 crayons
a day on this one machine.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
Now the moment

I've been waiting for.

Have I filled the
molds correctly?

Oh, that is
ridiculously satisfying.

And 960 crayons are
about to be born.

They are as soon as
you pull this lever here.

CHERRY HEALEY: If only
childbirth was this easy.

Woo!

You're kidding me.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
Almost perfect.

There's just one rogue crayon.

Look what I found,
a wafer thin crayon.

Ah.

That's an
inside-the-factory crayon.

How about that?

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER):
Not bad for a first attempt.

The remaining 959 are
labeled, ready for boxing.

CHERRY HEALEY: There's just one
thing now that my red crayon

needs, and that is
a yellow, a blue,

and a green, ready to entertain
my child and perhaps yours.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
In the German pencil factory,

it's been nearly 13 hours.

And my HBs are
looking for business.

They've been painted
and embossed.

But there's still a
final flourish to come,

and that happens in rounding.

GREGG WALLACE: What's this?

OK, now, this is
our rounding machine.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): It
smooths off the hexagonal edges

from the very top of the pencil.

So that's the result
of this rounding process.

You can see it's clean,
and it's lightly rounded.

Every single step
of the way it's

another tiny little detail.

Exactly.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): Now we

need to paint the rounded end,
which is harder than it sounds.

The pencils are gathered up
and pushed into trays that

hold 138 individual shafts.

Now, when the plate
is filled, the plate

moves on here to the
first position of dipping.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): The tray

of pencils is spun upside down
and dipped into metallic paint.

How do you know how far
to dip the pencils in?

We measure the depth
of the paint in the bowl

as you can see with
this red dot, which is

a laser to measure the depth.

And then we tell the machine
that it should come up

a millimeter more than before.

As the pencils dip and the
level of the paint goes down,

so the machine pushes
the tray of paint.

Right, exactly.

You guys are clever.

OK, thank you.

Very clever.

That's a nice process.

There's a certain elegance
about that, isn't there?

It's a nice slow process.

You could set that to music.

[MUSIC - ON THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE
DANUBE]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): A
new regiment of pencils joins

the dance every 30 seconds.

Then 690 of them take
a synchronized dip.

[music playing]

Once their crowning
glory has been applied,

the switching
machine twirls them

back the right way around--

[music playing]

- -before they trip the
light fantastic to drying.

[music playing]

Over here we have a box
of almost finished pencils.

What do you mean,
almost finished?

It's not sharpened yet.

Right.

How do you sharpen the pencil?

Well, that's a process that
takes place here in this box.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
A belt mechanism

pulls each pencil over a series
of rotating razor blades,

angled to create the
perfect point at the tip.

Well, that is an
incredible sight.

Those pencils are almost
falling over those blades.

And those blades are
spinning really quickly.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): Finally,

our HB pencils are born.

[music playing]

In theory, each of these pencils
is capable of drawing a line

about 35 miles long or
writing around 45,000 words,

if they pass quality control.

Our pencils are finished and
given a visual check to ensure

that the paint is perfect
and that the leads are sharp.

[gentle music]

But Lucas has invited me
to do an additional test

at the castle, which
houses the company museum.

What a place.

What a place.
How have you been?

What a fantastic place.

Listen, I've got some
finished pencils.

So I've heard there's
one final quality test.

There's one
final quality test.

And it's going to happen
right here in the castle.

You see that window up there?

GREGG WALLACE: Yeah, what?

LUCAS TOTLER: We're gonna drop
the pencil out of the window

into the castle yard.

Why would you want to do that?

It's a quality test to
test if the pencil, the lead,

is rigid enough to
withstand a drop from up

there all the way to down here.

But have they got a lift?

We're gonna walk up there.

Come on.

Come on.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
The factory castle

was built in 1906, when
production had just started

on the Series 9,000 pencil
we're about to chuck out

of the 25 meter high window.

[chuckles]

That's high, isn't it?

You're gonna throw the
pencils out the window?

You're gonna do it.

Just like that.

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): They invented

this test to demonstrate the
strength of the pencil lead.

So what do you think?

Well, they look all right.
They are the--

Not too bad.

You haven't swapped
them, have you?

I have not.

Right.

OK, well, they look OK.

But how are you going to
tell whether the lead is OK?

Because we got this guy.

So got the knife,
got the pencil.

And see, the lead
is still intact.

Yeah, OK, very impressive.

Proof enough?

Very, very impressive.

I've got one more test.

It's a British test of quality
to make sure your pencil is OK.

What is it?

Yep, that works.

That's awesome.

[laughs]

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE
(VOICEOVER): Test passed.

12 pencils are
popped in a packet

and 24 packets squeezed into
a box ready for distribution.

Where they're dealing with
the company's busiest period,

supplying pencils for the
start of the school year.

Hello, Florian?

Ah, hello.

Truck being loaded.

Yes.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
Florian Swartz

used his hand-operated
electric forklifts

to pack the company lorry with
wrapped pallets of pencils.

So, on that truck,
is that a day's

worth of pencil production?

Yeah.

Half a million pencils
are on the truck.

Do you know how many
pencils you produce in a year?

200 million.

If you lay all the
pencils we produce here,

it'll go once
around the equator.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
After 14 hours and 46 minutes

of production time, my
HB pencils are loaded up

and sent on their way.

That's it.

There's a lot of sketches
and letters on that truck,

- isn't there?
- Yep.

Thank you, Florian.

Thank you very much.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER):
From Nuremberg, these pencils

are exported to Britain
and 80 other countries

across six continents.

I've enjoyed my
time in Germany.

It's most certainly one of
the better looking factories

I've been in-- lots of
natural light and fresh air.

And I've learnt three
things about our HB pencil.

One, it's made from
two separate halves.

Two, it's hexagonal, so it
doesn't roll off the table.

And three, there's
no lead in it.

There never was.

In fact, there was never
any lead in any pencil ever.

Well, who knew?