Pencil lead is not made of lead, so why is it called a pencil?

It turned out that graphite was used in pencil lead, but there was not much graphite in those days. Lead was found to be a substitute for graphite and paint, so it was replaced (cheaper). Later, lead was toxic, so graphite was used again, but everyone used the name, so it has been used until now.

The origin of pencils

1564, a black mineral-graphite was discovered in a place called barodale, England. Because graphite can leave traces on paper like lead, which is much darker than lead, people call it "black lead". At that time, shepherds in Barodale often used graphite to mark sheep. Inspired by this, people cut the graphite block into small strips. King George II of England simply regarded Barodale graphite mine as the exclusive product of the royal family. Writing with graphite strips is not only easy to get dirty, but also easy to break. In +076 1 year, German chemist Faber was the first to solve this problem. He washed graphite with water to turn it into graphite powder, then mixed it with sulfur, antimony and rosin, and then made the mixture into strips. It is not easy to get your hands dirty. This is the earliest pencil. Until the end of18th century, only Britain and Germany could produce this kind of pencil. So Britain and Germany cut off the supply of pencils to France after Napoleon launched a war against neighboring countries. Therefore, Napoleon ordered the French chemist Comte to look for graphite ore in his own country and then make pencils. However, the quality of graphite ore in France is poor and its reserves are small. Barbecue in a kiln made a very good and durable pencil lead in the world at that time. The hardness and color depth of pencil lead produced by different clay proportions in graphite are different. This is the origin of H (hard pencil), B (soft pencil) and HB (pencil with moderate hardness) marked on pencils today.

Monroe, an American craftsman, completed the task of putting a wooden stick coat on the pencil. He first built a machine that can cut out battens, then carved a slot on the battens, put pencil lead in the slot, and then aligned and glued the two battens, with pencil lead tightly embedded in the middle. It is said that this is the pencil we use today.