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Conte, NJ

Name: Nicolas-Jacques Conte

Achievements: Developed the method on which the manufacture of modern pencils is based

Born: August 4, 1755; Saint-Cenery, France

Died: December 6, 1805; Paris, France (Aged 50)

Field & Discipline: Engineering; Invention; Aeronautics; Mechanical Designer

Language: French

Father: Unknown

Mother: Unknown

Siblings: 2 brothers, 3 sisters

Spouse: de Brossard (First name unknown)

Children: 1 daughter

Education: Little formal education; tutored by painter Jean Baptiste Greuze

Major Work: The pencil

Life & Times:

At 21, Conte began to study under Parisian portrait painter Jean Baptiste Greuze, who helped him become a successful portrait painter.  Conte was also interested in science and the mechanical arts, and attended lectures at the Academie des Sciences in Paris, where, in 1788, he exhibited a hydraulic machine he had invented.  In 1791, he invented a new stamp for minting coins and a new process for bleaching cloth.   He also experimented with balloons and because of this, in 1793, was called into the service of the revolutionary government.

The new government had set up a national security committee to determine France's military needs.  One member, chemist [worked with] Guyton de Morveau*, recommended the use of observation balloons, tethered to the ground, from which artillery could be directed against the enemy.  To find a way to generate hydrogen for the balloons without using sulfuric acid (the process used saltpeter, more urgently needed for gunpowder), a commission of scientists was asked to find a way to extract hydrogen on a large scale from water.  (Ten years earlier, [work related to] Lavoisier* succeeded in getting hydrogen by passing steam over red hot iron.)

The physicist in charge, Charles Coutelle, called on Conte, whom he regarded as the definitive balloon expert,  and in 1794, the world's first air force was formed, the Aerostatic Corps of the Artillery Service. Conte and Coutelle were made Brevet-Captains, with Coutelle heading the new corps and Conte directing the new air-balloon research center at Meudon, near Paris.  Conte worked at Meudon with mathematician-physicist [worked with] Monge* and de Morveau.

In 1795, Conte lost the sight in one eye when a glass flask exploded during an experiment for a new varnish for the silk of the balloon. (The government regarded this as a war wound, and Conte was promoted to Brigadier.)  Despite the injury to Conte, the varnish that emerged from the experiment was a huge success. Balloons coated it could remain fully inflated for up to six months.  From 1796, however, interest in air balloons decreased as military campaigns became more mobile.

In 1794, Conte was asked by the Minister Lazare Carnot to invent an artificial lead pencil. The supply of plumbago (a native English graphite used for pencil lead) had been cut off by the war with Britain, and France was faced with a shortage.  Conte developed a method of refining Alpine and Bohemian graphite by grinding and mixing it with clay to produce a material of the same quality as plumbago.  His method is still used to make graphite smooth for pencils.   In 1795, Conte took out a patent on this process, and supervised production.  A few years later, his pencil caused a sensation at the first French Industrial Exhibition in 1798, and soon his pencil was in demand all over Europe. By 1815, he had brought about radical changes in pencil manufacturing from Europe to the United States.  Within a few years, his name was used in referring to the product itself: “Conte pencils.”

In the spring of 1798, Conte was one of many scientists, including mathematician worked with] Fourier*, recruited for [served under] Napoleon*'s Egyptian expedition.  Conte was named chief of the balloon corps.  In July, 1799, when most of the French instruments and munitions were lost after the Battle of Aboukir and the revolt of Cairo, Conte put his ingenuity to work: two large workshops produced heavy constructions that would equip all the French military-industrial establishments in Egypt.  The first dealt with "forge work, iron lathes and heavy machinery", while the second produced the machinery for windmills then built in Cairo.

In 1802, Conte returned to France, where he was commissioned by the Minister of the Interior to supervise the publication of the great scientific and cultural report complied during the French occupation of Egypt and known as: "La Description de l'Egypte” (Description of Egypt) (1806-16), a work central to the foundation of Egyptology and the hieroglyphic deciphering work of [his book was resource for] Champollion* in France and [his book was resource for] Thomas Young* in England.

He continued his work at the Conservatoire and was involved in the establishment of the Societe d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale (the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry).

Extra Connections: His work related to that of [fellow-balloonist was] Lowe*

His pencil improved by [pencil improved by] Thoreau*

Assessment: Remarkably imaginative innovator who seemed able not only to invent anything required, but to build models of it and to organize and supervise the manufacturing of it.

Oneliner: N-J Conte, inventor of modern pencil

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