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English and German pencils were not available to the French during the Napoleonic Wars; France, under a naval blockade imposed by Great Britain, was unable to import the pure graphite sticks from the British Grey Knotts mines - the only known source in the world. France was also unable to import the inferior German graphite pencil substitute. It took the efforts of an officer in Napoleon's army to change this. In 1795, Nicolas-Jacques Conté

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