古德明英語軍事小故事：戰 火 催 生 的 鉛 筆(中英對照)
古德明《征服英語》之英語軍事故事，古德明，香港英語教育作家，他開了一個《征服英語專欄》，在專欄中專門用英語寫了世界近代史上的軍事小故事，用英語講述歷史中那些驚心動魄的戰爭。戰 火 催 生 的 鉛 筆
the napoleonic wars saw france at war with almost everyone else in europe, and the french found themselves in short supply of an important weapon -- the pencil, which was indispensable if you wanted to jot down a message or sketch enemy fortifications. the graphite needed to make pencil lead was found mostly in england and prussia.
in 1795, the french minister of war approached nicholas jacques conte, an ingenious army officer, for help. conte's idea was to make a little graphite go a long way. but how? after experimenting for eight days, he discovered that firing powdered graphite with clay would work, and the hardness of the pencil lead could be varied by varying the ratio of graphite to clay. this method of manufacture remains the one in use today.
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