In the club

The Lead Pencil have responded to my request for membership with a yes.

A pencil of one's own

The symbol of the Lead Pencil Club is a yellow Number 2 pencil with the text NOT SO FAST.

I have learned that American Number 2 is equivalent to Australian HB. The Australian ( in reality British ) system is that pencils with soft dark graphite are called Black - B. The more black are modified with a number - 2B, 4B, 6B, etc. Pencils with hard graphite are designated H, these make a fainter line. They are also graded with harder - and fainter pencils modified with a number - 2H, 4H, etc.

HB pencils are supposedly the happy medium between H and B. They are the most popular grade. You can buy they in packs of a hundred.

In 1971 - in primary school - I had moved to a new grade and - disgarding my slate - I was using HB pencil and paper. The teacher disgusted at the grubby marks on my writing pads called my mother in and said that I was to use 4H pencils. This would prevent me smearing graphite over the page. I did all my school right through to university with 4H pencils.

Recently re-looking at pencils - in my attempt to not use plastic biros - I find that I prefer 4B sharpered to a fine point. This gives a dark legible line.

The Lead Pencil Club

The Minutes of the Lead Pencil Club edited by Bill Henderson ( 1996, ISBN 0-916366-84-7 ) is a great read from the beginning of the internet. Some of the contributions are prophetic - I thought M. Kadi (page 175) was particularly accurate. 

Sweet Heinrich

The sugar shaker is 1950s German technology - it dispenses sugar without using possibly contaminated teaspoons. It is making a comeback in a covid world. As a bonus it has no moving parts to wear out and can be constructed without plastic.

Custom Clamp

The improved jockey wheel at the front of the camper trailer came with a clamp that allowed for a load up to 400kg and had 4 different clamping heights.

Great! Except that the clamp only suited a 75mm bar. I asked a local engineering firm to attach a backing plate for a 100mm bar and it all works very well.

King of Australia

Dr Edward de Bono died on 9 June aged 88.

He authored two of my favourite books -

Simplicity

Teach yourself to think.

He is also famous for- 

Lateral Thinking and

Six Thinking Hats.

He once said he wanted to be King of Australia because he sold so msny books here.

Using the tools he taught, I have surprised my colleagues many times with a creative idea.

Still as Stone

The stone curlew freezes if it thinks you are watching. It is like a Weeping Angel.

It seems to think itself invisible if it is not moving. It blends in well with dead leaves and stones.