Graphite is a unique element with special qualities beyond its use in pencils. It’s a fantastic conductor of electricity, as well as extremely heat resistant, withstanding temperatures of over 3,000 ...

It's time to sharpen your knowledge of pencil history! (Bet you can't guess what the first erasers were made of.) ...

One of the advantages of using a pencil rather than a pen is that graphite allows for experimentation (and mistakes to be erased); for sketching ideas before making ...

Despite the name, pencils have never been made with lead. They’re made with graphite, a form of carbon. Just where does graphite come from, and why did we decided to write with it? NPR took a look ...

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From Pencils You Should Know: A History of the Ultimate Writing Utensil in 75 Anecdotes by Caroline Weaver (published by Chronicle Books 2020, all images courtesy Chronicle Books) I hadn’t thought of ...

True or false: You can get lead poisoning if you’re stuck with a lead pencil. False. Lead pencils contain graphite (a form of carbon), not lead. In fact, contrary to what many people believe, lead ...