Glossary Term: Pencil
The first pencils were used by the ancient Egyptians, who used hollow pieces of reeds, bamboo, and tiny brushes of hair to write on papyrus. They called this tool a "pencillus," which is Latin for "little tail."

The modern pencil was invented in Northern England in 1564 after a storm blew down a tree. A black mineral substance was exposed in the tree roots, and was used by local townspeople for marking sheep. It was later sold in stick form and called "plumbago"—Latin for "acts like lead." Interestingly, pencils have never actually contained lead.

Many people experimented with making what we consider a pencil. Most efforts consisted of wrapping twine or cotton around a core of graphite (from the Greek word graphein, "to write") to keep the user's fingers clean. It was the English Guild of Pencil Makers who encased the graphite in wooden shafts.

The first American pencils were apparently made by a schoolgirl in Danvers, Massachusetts. She obtained some graphite, crushed it into a powder, mixed it with gum and stuffed it into hollowed-out twigs.

Pencil "leads" were once square, until it was discovered that round leads were easier to sharpen and didn't break as often!

Copyright 1998-2005 Sanford