button to main menu  Otley's Guide 1823 (5th edn 1834)

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Page 179:-
is built, where the workmen are undressed and examined as they pass through it on leaving their work.
Owing to the great value of this mineral, and the facilities afforded for disposing of it in an unmanufactured state, the greatest precaution has sometimes been scarcely sufficient to keep the workmen from pilfering, and those appointed to overlook them have not always escaped suspicion; yet, it is but justice to the present manager to state, that for upwards of fifty years that he has been employed, he has always sustained an unimpeachable character.
To prevent the depredations of intruders, it has sometimes been necessary to keep a strong guard upon the place; and for its better protection, an Act of Parliament was passed 25th Geo. 2d. cap. 10th, by which an unlawful entering of any mine, or wadhole of wad, or black-cawke, commonly called black-lead, or unlawfully taking, or carrying away any wad, &c. therefrom, as also the buying, or receiving the same, knowing it to be unlawfully taken, is made felony. In the preamble of this Act, it is stated to be 'necessary for divers useful purposes, and more particularly in the casting of bomb-shells, round shot, and cannon balls;' however, its use in cleaning and glossing cast iron work, such as stoves, grates, &c. is now well known to every housemaid.
  graphite lubricant
  pencils

Being capable of enduring a great heat without fusing, or cracking, it is used in the manufacture of crucibles; and its excellence in diminishing friction in wooden screws, and other machinery, makes it
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button -- Borrowdale Graphite Mine (?)
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