古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事，古德明，香港英语教育作家，他开了一个《征服英语专栏》，在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事，用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
战 火 催 生 的 铅 笔
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.
