No, the lead remains held when upright, even with the cage squeezed, by friction of the locked foremost metal sleeve. Squeezing the cage disengages that sleeve and engages a second sleeve with shims, to further grip and push a length of lead out a little, incrementally, as it were, then when released the initial sleeve re-engages to hold the lead for use. The nearest thing I have seen is tge mechanism on the Lyra Klimax, shown here- Name that PENCIL or PEN [8] - #26 by TheGoodPhite that us used to push andcretract the whole mechanism- a similar era so perhaps gave Hardtmuth the idea!?