History of pencil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

History of pencil - Essay Example The pencil did not appear until the Middle Ages, before that the majority of writing that was done was chiseled or etched into stone and later the Egyptians and Romans would introduce the stylus. The stylus was a thinned piece of lead that would leave light, but readable, marks on papyrus, an early precursor to paper (Pencil History, 2014).However, the fact, is that the grounds for the modern pencil was actually discovered by accident. As stated previously lead stylus were used to write, but in 1564 that would change. A new material, thought to be lead, which would be name graphite, was discovered in Borrowdale, England. Immediately it was noticed that it left dark black marks on the land. Many experts feel that this may have been discovered earlier by the Aztecs, as well. This black lead is, in fact, graphite, which is not a form of lead at all (Pencil History, 2014).The first graphite pencils were simply shards of graphite that were wrapped in cloth or string; ideally to keep the hands clean. The development of pencils began in Europe, particularly in Germany, which was the location of the first massed produced pencil industry in 1662 (Pencil History, 2014).Of course, these pencils did not look quite like the pencils of today. In fact these earliest pencils were not painted at all. However, it was a man named Nicholas-Jacques Conte, scientist in Napoleon’s forces, in 1795, who is credited with the inventi ng of the modern pencil (Popova). It was the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century that spawned the first pencil product war. Different manufacturers were determined to highlight their products from those of others. This is when colors were added to identify different pencils from different companies. In the United States at this time is when erasers were conveniently added to one end of the pencil. However, to this day the majority of pencils sold in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe do not have and never have had