The Pencil Trivia Quiz

Answer: Small Brush

The Latin word "penicillium," a small brush which left a fine line, actually means "little tail." The word went from Latin to Old French as "pincel," and from there to Middle English as "pencel" or "pencel" before the spelling finally became the "pencil" we all know and love.

Answer: Drawing rule lines

The mark left by a lead pencil was generally too light for writing anything intended for a wide readership, but it was ideal for drawing rule lines on paper or making notes in the margins of a book. I have not read of any reports of lazy students poisoned by their lead styluses.

However, Thomas Astle, the author of the 1798 book 'The Origin and Progress of Writing', details several incidents where people were stabbed by stylus-wielding assailants. It's a dangerous world!

Answer: Graphite

The rock was the mineral graphite. The graphite from Borrowdale was found in large lumps, which were then cut into thin slices and inserted in a wooden sheath. Pencils made from "Borrowdale graphite" were superior to lead pencils because they left a darker mark.

At the time, the chemical nature of graphite was unknown, and graphite was known as wad, English antimony, black lead, and Spanish lead, among other things. The modern-day name comes from the Greek word "graphein," "to write." Graphite is one of several naturally occurring forms of carbon.

Another, of course, is diamond.

Answer: Clay

Nicolas-Jaques Conté developed his method of making pencils in 1794, a time when France was cut off from supplies of pencils from Britain and Germany, the main pencil producers at the time. He experimented with mixing finely-ground graphite with water and clay, letting this mixture dry in pencil-lead shaped molds, and then firing the leads in a kiln.

This method had several advantages. The graphite did not need to be found in pieces large enough to make a whole pencil, the shortcoming of the English method. Pencils made by the Conté process wrote more smoothly than German pencils. Finally, one could vary the hardness of the lead by adjusting the proportion of graphite to clay, something neither the Germans nor the English could do.

Answer: Henry David Thoreau

Henry David's father, John, began the Thoreau & Co. pencil company, but Henry David did a substantial amount of the research and development for the process and the machinery. By the mid-1800's, Thoreau pencils were the premier writing and drawing pencils in America.

Answer: The highest-quality pencil at the time was yellow

In the 1890's, the highest quality pencil was painted yellow. It was called the Koh-I-Noor, after the famous Indian diamond, and cost three times the amount of any other pencil. The color yellow was supposedly chosen to match the colors of the Austro-Hungarian flag, but that color also suggested the Orient, which was the source of the finest-quality graphite at the time.

The Koh-I-Noor became so popular that yellow became "the" color for pencils!

Answer: The hardness or blackness of the lead

The Conté process allows the manufacturer to vary the hardness or blackness of the lead by adjusting the ratio of graphite to clay. Hard pencils are useful for making precise drawings; soft and black pencils are good for sketching and drawing. There are two different rating schemes. One, invented by Faber, uses letters: ...3H, 2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B, 3B... going from hardest to softest and blackest. What the letters stand for is a mystery. H could be "hard," and B could be "black," but what is the F? And since Faber was German, shouldn't these stand for German words? The other system uses numbers, #1, #2, #3, etc. #1 = B, #2 = HB, #2.5 = F, #3 = H, and #4 = 2H.

Answer: The mechanical pencil sharpener

When sharpening a pencil with a penknife, as people did before mechanical pencil sharpeners were invented, it didn't matter if the pencil lead was off-center. However, a mechanical pencil sharpener would break the point of a pencil with an off-center lead. Mechanical pencil sharpeners became so popular that it was necessary to develop new machinery with increased precision.

It is interesting how a new consumer convenience drove pencil design.

Answer: False

The erasability of graphite was known from the early days of pencils. Around 1612, a writer remarked that a pencil mark could be rubbed out with "crums of new wheate bred." Rubber erasers were developed around 1770. The idea of putting erasers on the ends of pencils came about a hundred years later.

After that, there was some debate about the wisdom of allowing schoolchildren to use "rubber-tipped" pencils, but we all know how that turned out!

Answer: All of these

This information is taken from a quote from Abdullah Ismail of Venus Pencil Co. (PVT) Ltd. The quote is so wonderful I reproduce it here in full: "The wood-cased pencil is, perhaps, man's closest approach to perfection. The modern pencil can draw a line 35 miles long, write an average of 45,000 words and absorb 17 sharpenings.

It is nearly weight-less and totally portable. It deletes its own errors but does not give off radiation. It doesn't leak and never needs a ribbon change, isn't subject to power surges, and is chewable. You could eat one every day without harming yourself. Any legal document that does not expressly forbid it can be executed with a pencil." I hope you have enjoyed this quiz about the history of the pencil! Happy writing!