00:00Look up, look down, look all around. Up in the air or on the ground. Come for a walk, come for a ride. There's so much to see, so come outside.
00:26We're perfect for drawing and colouring in, with so many colours to choose from. We're perfect for writing your favourite words. Keep us sharpened and ready to use. What are we? We're pencils.
00:47Pippin sits still. Hello, me dears. I'm trying to draw Pippin's picture, but she keeps moving. Now sit still, Pippin.
01:09Pippin! I think you need a walk. You're very restless. It's time I bought a new pencil. We'll go to the stationery shop. Come on.
01:35Here they are. What a lot of pencils.
01:43Here they are. What a lot of pencils.
01:57Did you know there are different sorts of pencils? Some make light, thin lines on the paper. Others make dark, thicker lines. I need one that makes dark lines. This one, I think.
02:17Have you ever wondered where pencils come from? We'll go and find out. Thank you.
02:35Pippin, it's time to fly.
02:38Pippin, it's time to fly.
02:42Pippin, it
03:09We're going to a place which has big hills and lakes, so look out for a lake full of
03:17water, Pippin.
03:22Can you see a lake, Pippin?
03:33Here we are, look how the land dips in the middle with hills on both sides, it's called
03:45a valley, and that's where we're going.
04:03Something happened here five hundred years ago, and if it hadn't happened, there might
04:09never have been any pencils.
04:16It all began here, in the valley we call Seathwaite.
04:23There were two brothers, Thomas and John.
04:27They were shepherds, and they each owned a flock of sheep.
04:32Every day their sheep would feed together in the grassy valley.
04:37One day John noticed a sheep had wandered off.
04:41Thomas, he said, one of your sheep is up in the hills.
04:46You'd better go and fetch her back.
04:49That isn't my sheep, said Thomas.
04:52That's one of yours.
04:54You'd better go and fetch her back.
04:58Then they began to argue.
05:00You see, the problem was, they couldn't tell one sheep from another.
05:05They all looked the same.
05:08That night there was a terrible storm.
05:14Next morning, on the side of the hill, Thomas and John saw an old tree had been torn from
05:19the ground by the fierce wind, and there, under its roots, they saw what looked like coal.
05:30They always needed coal to make a fire to keep themselves warm and cook their food.
05:37So Thomas and John dug up as much as they could carry.
05:43When they got it home, they tried to light it, but it wouldn't burn.
05:48This isn't coal, said John.
05:53What is it?
05:56Then Thomas noticed his hands were dark grey, and he said, I don't know what it is, but I
06:05know what we can use it for.
06:10He went out into the valley where the sheep were feeding, and he marked half of them with
06:16a cross.
06:18Now, John, he said, the sheep I've marked are mine, and the rest are yours.
06:28So from then on, they knew who owned which sheep, and they never argued about it again.
06:39The shepherds didn't know it, but they discovered a special sort of rock called graphite.
06:47It was very good at making marks which didn't come off easily.
06:59Very soon tunnels were dug deep into the hills, and they began to dig up the graphite.
07:08You can still see up there on the hillside where they used to dig for graphite.
07:15I wonder what it was like in those tunnels.
07:22Oh, Pippin, I think we're in one of the tunnels, deep under the ground.
07:35Pippin, Pippin, where are you?
07:42Pippin, what have you found?
07:48That's how they used to work in the underground tunnels, chipping away at the rock to dig out
08:08the graphite.
08:15Oh, whatever next?
08:23Well, once they dug up the graphite, people started using it for writing, and we still
08:29use it today.
08:32This is a factory where they use graphite to make pencils.
08:35Come on, Pippin.
08:44There's some graphite.
08:46It's being crushed and mixed with clay.
08:52When it's ready, the graphite and clay mixture is put into a machine where it's squeezed
08:59and squashed into this round shape.
09:04It's called a billet.
09:12The billet goes into a machine which squeezes and squashes it even more and cuts it up into
09:20hundreds of very thin strips.
09:33The strips are put into a hot oven to dry out.
09:37They stay there for three hours.
09:41Then, they're soaked in hot wax.
09:47The wax will make them write smoothly so they won't tear the paper.
09:57And there it is.
10:00This doesn't look like a pencil.
10:02No, it needs a wooden jacket.
10:09So the graphite strips are glued onto pieces of wood.
10:19Another piece of wood is glued on top, making a sandwich.
10:24Then the sandwich is cut up.
10:29And now they look like pencils.
10:34Then they're painted.
10:36These pencils are having yellow jackets painted on.
10:42They're all sharpened, like these green coloured pencils.
10:48And then they're ready to use.
10:52They've got a lot of colours.
10:57Thank you, goodbye.
11:01Pippin's got a souvenir.
11:03Show us, Pippin.
11:06It's a piece of graphite.
11:09It looks like one of the very first pencils ever used.
11:17And I've bought a set of coloured pencils.
11:20So we can go home and finish Pippin's picture in colour.
11:24What a busy day, Pippin.
11:27There are so many things to do with pencils.
11:33Practice writing letters nice and neatly.
11:37Choose your favourite colours for a picture.
11:40Like a monster with purple handsome feet.
11:43We shall always remember the things we've seen today.
11:49Pencils made of graphite and pencils made of clay.
11:53You could all write a letter to Pippin.
12:01Don't forget to write a letter to Pippin.
12:03Don't forget to write it nice and clearly.
12:06Use your coloured pencils for a border.
12:10Try not to make a smudge.
12:13Oh dear.
12:14We shall always remember the things we've seen today.
12:19Pencils made of graphite and pencils made of clay.
12:23Pippin, what are you doing?
12:42It's your picture.
12:57Well, I think it looks very nice.
13:05I'll write your name on it.
13:29Oh dear.
