Learn more› By Melanie Pinola I’ll never forget the first mechanical pencil I tried to use. It was a gnarly mustard-yellow, and I had to twist the conical tip to advance the lead. The pencil ...

3mm is a bright yellow and there’s also black ... Lead width and hardness are really what we’re talking about here. Most mechanical pencils will take lead of any hardness, and many of the higher-end ...

George Washington owned a gilt-clad mechanical pencil, and Abraham Lincoln wrote ... and the other is an electric yellow that makes for a great pseudo-highlighter. When I was in grad school ...

Instead, it more closely resembles modern mechanical pencils, which still have tiny erasers. Before Lipman came along, people would use separate erasers to correct their errors. (In Europe ...

Here are 10 facts about pencils that you probably didn't know. 1. Yellow pencils originally were supposed to connote luxury. The tradition of yellow pencils began 120 years ago when a Hungarian ...

We independently review everything we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more› By Sarah Witman Sarah Witman is a writer focused on batteries and charging ...

According to most stories, our pencils are yellow as a result of a clever marketing gimmick. In 1889, the Hardtmuth company of Austria introduced a new line of fancy pencils at the World's Fair in ...

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 ...