September 7, 2022 – Pencils

This is the second day of our Back to School Theme Week! Have you ever wondered why it’s called a number 2 pencil? Here in the U.S., pencils are numbered from 0 to 4, and the numbers correspond to how hard the graphite is. Lower numbers are softer, and typically used by artists for shading. Higher numbers are harder, for a finer point and crisper lines. A #2 pencil is right in the middle, not too hard or too soft. Perfect for filling in scantrons!
Numbers were first used on pencils by John Thoreau, father of author Henry David Thoreau. He owned a pencil factory in New Hampshire. However the graphite they used wasn’t very good quality, so Henry David Thoreau discovered that adding clay as a binding agent would make a good pencil out of inferior graphite. In the mid 19-century, they were selling pencils with different graphite hardness, which they numbered 1 through 4.
So if a pencil’s core is made of graphite, why do we call it pencil lead? It goes back to 1565, when a huge deposit of graphite was found in England. At the time, chemistry was in its infancy and scientists weren’t sure what the substance was. They assumed it was lead, and the name stuck.
Pencils were typically made out of red cedar wood. However, in the early 20th century, red cedar supplies were dwindling and getting perilously low. So during World War II, Britain outlawed rotary pencil sharpeners for a short time because they wasted so much lead and wood.
A majority of pencils in the U.S. are painted yellow. This tradition started in 1890, when the L & C Hardtmouth company introduced their new Koh-I-Noor brand of pencils. They were named after the famed Koh-I-Noor diamond and were meant to be the world’s best, most expensive pencil. In order to distinguish itself, during a time when most pencils were painted dark or not at all, they decided to make their pencils yellow. Many other companies soon copied this idea to associate their pencils with a high-quality brand.
The first patent for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil was awarded in 1858. The small metal band that holds the eraser onto the pencil is called a ferrule.
Author John Steinbeck was a big fan of pencils, and was said to have used as many as 60 a day. Roald Dahl was another writer who preferred pencils. He had 6 sharpened pencils ready every morning, and only when all 6 became unusable did he resharpen them. Learn more here.