Before the modern pencil was invented, great artists and thinkers like Leonardo da Vinci used metalpoint styluses to draft their work.
In the 1500s, people started twirling string or sheepskin around graphite to make it easier to use, and a Swiss naturalist designed a pencil with a strip of graphite encased in wood.
Then, in 1794, an engineer baked rods of low-quality graphite mixed with wet clay to create a predecessor to our modern pencil that did not require as much high-quality graphite.
Zoom into our infographic below to learn more about the power of the pencil.
