Learn more› By Melanie Pinola Confession time: I’ve never liked mechanical pencils. The lead breaks as soon as it touches paper, or it never leaves the pencil body in the first place.

Still, there were attempts to bring pencils into space. In 1965, the agency famously ordered 34 specially designed mechanical pencils in hopes of finding the perfect writing tool for astronauts.

But am I being environmentally irresponsible by asking parents to buy plastic mechanical pencils? The Lantern is sympathetic: It’s hard enough evaluating the relative ecological impact of two ...

And when I say “a mechanical pencil,” you should know that I mean “lots of mechanical pencils.” Cheap, plastic mechanical pencils; expensive polycarbonate mechanical pencils; tiny ...

before the Space Pen came around. Americans favored mechanical pencils, which produced a fine line but presented hazards when the pencil lead tips broke (and if you've ever used a mechanical ...