The Pencil

Black gold from Borrowdale

In the 1500s, a large deposit of very pure graphite was found at Borrowdale in England's Lake District. People used it to mark sheep and write, and because it looked like lead it was called black lead, which is why we still say pencil lead, even though pencils contain no lead.

Graphite and clay

Pure graphite was scarce. In 1795 French inventor Nicolas-Jacques Conte found that mixing powdered graphite with clay and firing it in a kiln made strong leads, and that changing the amount of clay changed the hardness. This method is still used today.

Wood and erasers

Leads were set into grooved wooden strips glued together, often cedar, which sharpens easily. In 1858 Hymen Lipman in Philadelphia patented a pencil with an attached eraser. In the 1890s a European maker painted pencils yellow to suggest quality graphite from China, a colour that became standard in the US.

Grades

Pencils are graded by hardness. H pencils are hard and light, B pencils are soft and dark, and HB is in the middle. In the US, a number 2 pencil is roughly HB, which is why it is the classic school and exam pencil.

How it changed everyday life

The pencil has been a tool for writers, artists, engineers and students for centuries because it is cheap, portable and erasable. Architects sketched buildings with pencils, and students took exams with them. Even in the age of screens, pencils remain essential in classrooms and art studios, and carpenters still mark wood with flat carpenter's pencils that do not roll away. Mechanical pencils, introduced in the 1800s and improved in the 1900s, offered a sharp point without a sharpener.

Did you know?

A typical pencil can draw a line many kilometres long before it is used up, and pencils work upside down and in zero gravity.

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