Preface -- 1 What We Forget -- 2 Of Names, Materials, and Things -- 3 Before the Pencil -- 4 Noting a New Technology -- 5 Of Traditions and Transitions -- 6 Does One Find or Make a Better Pencil? -- 7 Of Old Ways and Trade Secrets -- 8 In America -- 9 An American Pencil-Making Family -- 10 When the Best Is Not Good Enough -- 11 From Cottage Industry to Bleistiftindustrie -- 12 Mechanization in America -- 13 World Pencil War -- 14 The Importance of Infrastructure -- 15 Beyond Perspective -- 16 The Point of It All -- 17 Getting the Point, and Keeping It -- 18 The Business of Engineering -- 19 Competition, Depression, and War -- 20 Acknowledging Technology -- 21 The Quest for Perfection -- 21 The Quest for Perfection -- 22 Retrospect and Prospect -- Appendix A -- From “How the Pencil Is Made” -- Appendix B -- A Collection of Pencils -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Index.