Most of the pencils are made from graphite with clay, some pencils are made from charcoal, others are made from carbon, and there is also the colored pencils and grease pencils. Most of the mixture are covered with a wooden binder, while some are covered with plastic. The great advantage in the pencil, which caused its use in writing and drawing all over the world is that it can be easily erased.
Graphite was first discovered in the 16th century in England, the English people used it to mark the sheep. Then it was used to mark the cannonballs, after the mines were put under guarding. The news of the graphite spread over the world, and mines of graphite were discovered in several parts of the world.
The graphite was put in the sort of strings or wrapped in sheepskin to be able to use the sticks. In Italy in the year 1560, Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti reached for the first wooden case for the pencil. They hollowed a small piece of wood and filled it with graphite.
The graphite was formed to sticks and used, in its ore natural form. In the year 1662, the Germans used powdered graphite and mixed it with sulphur and antimony to present graphite sticks.
In the year 1790, the Austrian architect and inventor Joseph Hardtmuth (1758-1816) used a kiln to harden the graphite.
In the year 1795, the French army officer and painter Nicolas-Jacques Conté (1755-1805) added clay to graphite and put it in the kiln to control the hardness of it.
In the year 1858, The American Hymen Lipman (1817-1893) was the first to attach an eraser to the pencil.
In the year 1870, the American company Joseph Dixon Crucible Company owned by Joseph Dixon (1799-1869), Joseph Dixon was an inventor who reached a way for mass producing of the pencils.
The pencils were sharpened using knives until the year 1847, when the French mathematician Bernard Lassimone produced the pencil sharpener. The first mechanical pencil sharpener was invented in the year 1847 by Therry des Estwaux.
Mechanical pencils use lead core that are pushed through the hole by a mechanical way, they were first made in the year 1822 in Britain by the engineer and inventor John Isaac Hawkins (1772–1855).