Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Wed. 3/30 Is National Pencil Day

Standard No. 2, colored, rainbow, dull or sharp, mechanical, long or short, no matter how you like them a pencil is a student’s best friend so what better way to celebrate National Pencil Day that happens tomorrow MARCH 30th then to highlight a few things about this wondrous writing tool.

Let’s start with a visual of how they are made…How Pencils Are Made by pencilpages. Image by Incense Cedar Institute. #Pencil

How Pencils Are Made by pencilpages. Image by Incense Cedar Institute. #Pencil:

10 Pencil Facts

1. Pencils can be used upside down, underwater and in zero gravity.

2. French pencil boosters include Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who patented a clay-and-graphite manufacturing process in 1795; Bernard Lassimone, who patented the first pencil sharpener in 1828; and Therry des Estwaux, who invented an improved mechanical sharpener in 1847. (via discovermagazine.com/ )

3. Before erasers were invented, people used bread to remove their errors.

4. The metal band that attaches the pencil to the eraser is called a FERRULE

5. You can’t get lead poisoning from a No. 2 lead pencil because the “lead” is actually a mixture of graphite & clay.

6. Pencils are designated 1-4 with 1 being the softest & darkest, thus 4 being the hardest & lightest.

7. The average pencil can write 45,000 words.

8. The longest pencil record is 1,509 ft and 1.05 inch and is held by a company in Nuremberg, Germany since 8/5/2015.

9. Why yellow? Yellow was viewed as a color of luxury & quality and who wouldn’t want a pencil with those same qualities?

10. Lastly if you think you have pencils here, there and everywhere – well you don’t compared to Tushar Lakhanpal of India he has the world’s largest collection of pencils consists of 19,824 pencils verified 14 October 2015.

Image source: Tushar Lakhanpal/Facebook

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