Week 9: The History of the Pencil

So I was thinking about pencils and how much I love school supplies and it dawned on me that I did not know the history of the pencil or where it came from. I looked it up and here is what I found!

The pencil was originally called a "stylus." A word that was used for an ancient Roman writing instrument. Scribes used this instrument to leave a light but readable mark on their form of paper called "papyrus." Other scribes used lead which is actually non-toxic graphite. Graphite came into wide spread use following the huge graphite deposit found in Borrowdale, England in 1564. The graphite was soft and left a darker mark. However, a problem arrived. The graphite would break very easily so it needed a holder for it. People first used string to wrap around it, but eventually they thought of the idea of holding it in wood. This is how the wood pencil came about! In America William Monroe, a concord, Massachusetts cabinet-maker, is responsible for making America's first pencil in 1812. Another concord distinguished for the pencil making in America is Henry David Thoreau. From there on out, the pencil industry thrived!

You may ask yourself why the original pencil was colored yellow? Well, I am here to tell you! A pencil has been colored yellow since the 1890s because during the 1800s, the best graphite found in the world was from China. American pencil industries wanted people to know that China's graphite was used in their pencils. The Chinese national color is known to be yellow. They painted the pencil yellow so that their pencil would represent China.

Pretty cool huh?