It was as early as 1564 that a "pencil" similar to what we know today was in use. That year, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a deposit of graphite (black carbon) was found in Borrowdale, Cumbria. It was so solid and uniform that it could be sawn into sheets and cut into thin square sticks. Not much chemistry was known in 1564, so the material was called plumbago, or something which is like lead. The graphite …showed first 75 words of 528 total…

…showed last 75 words of 528 total…of grading far beyond the old hand-testing methods, so a scientific laboratory was set up at the Berol plant and special testing machines perfected to produce seventeen degrees as accurately spaced as the markings on a rule. Today, the pencil industry is an international business, bringing raw materials from every corner of the globe and sending its finished pencils out again to give the peoples of the world an ever improving writing tool. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**