Henry David Thoreau Engineered the American Classroom Standard #2 Pencil In 1820

Each year, March 30th National Pencil Day honors the writing utensil that has done more than just teach millions the alphabet and draw straight lines. It’s also helped win wars and enabled amazing art.

• 1500s – A large reserve of graphite is discovered in England, which is extremely solid and can be carved into sticks.
• 1560 – An Italian couple creates pencils that look almost like modern wood-encased carpentry pencils
• 1662 – A new form of pencil was created using graphite, sulfur, and antimony in Germany.
• 1770 – A clergyman-chemist named Joseph Priestley noticed that the gum harvested from South American trees was very effective at removing pencil marks. Because people had to rub to remove the marks, this gum was named ‘rubber. ’
• 1795 – The modern pencil was invented by Nicolas-Jacques Conte.
• 1812 – Pencil manufacturer William Munroe creates wood pencils from the popular Eastern Red Cedar trees in Tennessee; his designs inspire other southern manufacturers and are used by other industries.
• 1820 – Henry David Thoreau and his father substitute clay for wax, and the graphite creates a very readable text; this pencil becomes standard in classrooms across the U.S. This becomes the world’s first #2 pencil.
• 1828 – The first pencil sharpener was invented by Bernard Lassimone.
• 1858 – Hymen Lipman received the first patent for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil on this day in 1858.
  • The intuitive businessman also manufactured envelopes for his stationery shop and was the first to add adhesive to the flaps of envelopes.
• 1861 – Eberhard Faber was responsible for the mass production of pencils in America.  Eberhard built a huge factory that made pencils in New York City.
• 1890 – In the United States, most pencils are painted yellow. This tradition began in 1890 when the L & C Hardtmuth Company of Austria-Hungary introduced their Koh-I-Noor brand, named after the famous diamond. They intended the pencil to be the world’s best and most expensive pencil. However, other companies began to copy the yellow color so that their pencils would be associated with the high-quality brand.
• 1942 – During World War II, Cumberland Pencil Company in Kenswick, England, produced pencils that were designed to function. However, the pencils were hollow with graphite on either end. Between the graphite, the makers had stowed maps to aid captured military personnel in their escape to freedom.
• 2007 – The Guinness World Record for the world’s largest pencil was set in 2007, measuring more than 76 feet long and weighing more than 21,000 pounds.
• 2017 – BIC (maker of disposable consumer products, including pens and pencils) created the world’s longest pencil. The pencil measured 3582 feet, 7.73 inches (1091.99 meters) and was made from recycled polystyrene with a graphite center.
• 2018 – In the digital age, we go back to using a writing instrument from the Roman ages — the stylus — which erases mistakes, blends colors, and does so much more on Apple devices around the globe.
• Thomas Edison had pencils specially made by Eagle Pencil. His pencils were three inches long, thicker than standard pencils, and had softer graphite than typically available.
• Vladimir Nabokov rewrote everything he ever published. The author of greats like “Lolita and Pale Fire” would rewrite everything he had written, several times, in pencil.
  
• John Steinbeck was an obsessive pencil user and used as many as 60 a day. His novel, East of Eden, took more than 300 pencils to write.
  
• Vincent van Gogh used only Faber pencils as they were “superior to Carpenters pencils, a capital black and most agreeable.”
  
• Johnny Carson regularly played with pencils at his Tonight Show desk. These pencils were specially made with erasers at both ends to avoid on-set accidents.
  
• Roald Dahl used only pencils with yellow casings to write his books. He began each day with six sharpened pencils, and only when all six became unusable did he resharpen them.
• Before erasers, writers removed pencil markings using bread crumbs.
• It is speculated that the word pencil comes from the Latin word pencillus, which means “little tail.” Another theory is that it is derived from the French pincel, meaning “little paintbrush.”
• Pencils can write underwater and in zero gravity.
• A single standard-size pencil can draw a line 35 miles long.  That’s the equivalent of writing about 45,000 words, or half a novel!
• Contrary to popular belief, it was never possible to get lead poisoning from a pencil. The pencil was never made from lead. It’s always been graphite.
• The pencil’s lead does not actually contain lead. The discovery of a large deposit of graphite in Cumbria, England was well suited for writing. Initially, people thought the substance was lead, thus giving it the name now used.
• Aaron Bartholmey’s collection, officially confirmed in 2023, is the largest in the world. Aaron Bartholmey of Colfax, Iowa, who was recognized by Guinness World Records for his collection of 69,255 items.
• The largest collection of pencil sharpeners contains 8,514 sharpeners. These sharpeners are all different, and the collection is owned by Demetra Koutsouridou.
• Worldwide, an average of 14.8 billion pencils are made every year.  If you lined these up, you could circle the world 62 times!
• The number ‘2’ indicates the hardness of the graphite core, with #2 being the standard for general writing. This corresponds to the ‘HB’ grade used internationally.
• 2 billion pencils are used by individuals in the USA each year.
• The most expensive pencil ever sold was a $400,000 Graf Von Faber-Castell perfect pencil. This pencil was made of 240-year-old olive wood and has 18-carat white gold fittings.
• A typical pencil can be sharpened about 17 times before it is too short to use.
• Early American and Russian astronauts used pencils during missions because they could write in zero gravity.  However, concerns about flammability and floating graphite particles led NASA to develop the pressurized Fisher Space Pen.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Baron Fig

History of Pencils

Commonplace Fun Facts

National Today

Days of the Year