Inside the Factory, Series 1 - 7 - 'Series 4, Episode 8: Pencils'
British iTunes Chart Performance

• Release date: 19 Mar 2019
• Chart debut: #49 (25 Sep 2023)
• Highest Position: #49 (25 Sep 2023)
• Most recent chart position: #49 (25 Sep 2023)
• Days on UK TV Episodes Chart: 2

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UK TV Episodes chart performance history for Series 4, Episode 8: Pencils

gregg wallace is in germany at a historic factory which produces 600000 pencils a day at materials intake he is astonished that the main material in a pencil is not lead but graphite he helps mix this with clay to...

...a 250-kilo batch enough for 200000 pencils he also discovers why these pencils are hexagonal because it stops them rolling off the table and he performs an unusual quality check by throwing his finished pencils from a 25-metre-high tower when they are chopped open the leads are still intact meanwhile cherry healey is at manchester university examining the astonishing properties of graphite she discovers that this highly conductive form of carbon is also able to withstand temperatures up to 3000 degrees celsius more surprising still if you strip a single layer of atoms from its surface you produce an entirely new material known as graphene thin and virtually invisible embedding this in our phone screens could mean that in future we could simply roll them up she is also investigating the science behind graphology and asking if we can evaluate personality from handwriting style historian ruth goodman is on the trail of the very earliest pencils in the lake district it is a story which begins in the 15th century with the discovery of a huge deposit of pure graphite in the borrowdale valley carved into sticks and wrapped in string it made a brilliant writing tool ruth is also wondering if in this modern digital age the pencil is outdated technology but she finds documents that show the death of handwriting has been prematurely announced on many occasions dating right back to the invention of the printing press

• Series 6, Episode10: Vacuums
• Series 1, Episode 1: Bread
• Series 4, Episode 5: Potato Waffles
• Series 3, Episode 2: Pasta
• Series 3, Episode 3: Biscuits
• Series 3, Episode 1: Tea Bags
• Christmas 2016
• Series 2, Episode 6: Shoes
• Christmas 2018
• Series 7, Episode 9: Mints
• Series 4, Episode 9: Cheese
• Series 4, Episode 8: Pencils
• Series 7, Episode 1: XL Diggers