It’s National Pencil Day!
Sometime before 1565 a large graphite deposit was found in Cumbria, England… (England had a monopoly on pencil production until a method was found to reconstitute graphite powder.)
Since graphite is soft it needed encasement…originally graphite was wrapped in string or sheepskin – around 1560 an Italian Couple Simonio and Lydiana Bernacotti found a way to insert the graphite into a hollowed out Juniper Stick.
Later 2 wooden halves were carved and the graphite stick was inserted and the halves were glued together, (how pencils are made today).
It was on this date in 1858, is when Hymen Lipman received a patent for a pencil with an attached eraser. The modern eraser-tipped pencil is 157 years old today!