Today, an interesting bit of writing-related history from Moss & Fog!
Why Are Pencils Yellow? The Surprising History of the No. 2 Pencil
Here’s how a lump of English sheep-marking rock, a French inventor, an Austrian pencil maker and a famous diamond added up to the most familiar object on your desk.
True, pencils aren’t all yellow, but many are. The why can be traced back to a luxury pencil maker who named their version after the Koh-i-Noor diamond and exhibited their version at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, which also showcased the Eiffel Tower.
Just a few of the other interesting facts I did not know before reading this article: Henry David Thoreau’s father ran a pencil business, and young Henry was an innovator in the graphite grinding space. Pencils started as boring, unpainted, round shadows of their current glory. And reassuringly, calling it “lead” is rooted in a centuries-old case of mistaken identity. There has never been any lead in pencils.
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