PENCIL

(Lat. penicil lum.) In Painting, Drawing, Ice., the instrument wherewith the colours are applied. Pencils are of various sorts, sizes, and materials, suited to the nature of the work. The black lead pencil is made of long slips of black lead (plumbago or graphite), inclosed in cylindrical pieces of cedar, and is too well known to need farther description. PENCIL OF LIGHT, In Optics, is a collection of the rays or evanescent streams of light converging to a point, as the focus of a lens or mirror. [s. 925]