pencil

Office materials: Although we call the core of a pencil the "lead", it is actually made of graphite. Early writing instruments were made of lead but this changed after the discovery of large deposits of graphite in Borrowdale, England in 1564. Graphite was found to leave a darker mark than lead and is therefore easier to read. However, it breaks easily and at first, sticks of graphite were wrapped in string. Then, around the middle of the 17th century, a core of graphite was inserted into wooden sticks; this was the first pencil as we know it. The first mass-produced pencils were made in Nuremberg, Germany in 1662. A pencil industry quickly developed throughout the industrial revolution including still famous companies such as Faber-Castell, Lyra and Staedtler. In Europe there are four basic strengths from soft B (black), HB (hard-black), F (firm) to H (hard) and 20 subdivisions.

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