Happy National Pencil Day

By Terry Orr

INTERESTING PENCIL FACTS . . .

• More than 14 billion pencils are produced in the world every year  - enough to circle the globe 62 times.
• Two billion pencils are made in the United States each year.
• The pencil was invented more than 400 years ago, in 1565.
• Famous novelists Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck used pencils to write their books.
• Pencils didn't have erasers on them until 100 years ago because teachers felt they would encourage children to make mistakes.
• It would cost $50 in labor and materials for a person to make a 10-cent pencil.
• One million pencils are used annually on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
• The average pencil can be sharpened 17 times, write 45,000 words or draw a line 35 miles long.
• A good-size tree will make about 300,000 pencils.
• Pencils don't really contain lead.  That gray matter is granite and clay.

March 30 is National Pencil Day! Several years ago, I finally transitioned from wooden to mechanical pencils for daily use – although, there are still some wooden ones scattered here and there.

For those looking for different uses of the pencil other than its intended purpose, purpleslinky.com (http://purpleslinky.com/offbeat/56-uses-for-the-common-pencil/ offers 56 Uses for the Common Pencil.

There are many ways to sharpen your wooden pencils and here a few examples:

(All images from Google)

Rubber Eraser Day

Another fun day topic! 

(Google Image) 

By Akindman

Why are most erasers used up before the pencil?

A couple years before my Dad passed, he gave me to Pentel clic erasers.

(Google Image) 

Now this was just too cool.  Especially since I use mechanical pencils all day and as you can imagine, wore out many erasers during the normal course of my daily routine.  I have purchase many of them since the first, some as gifts, others for myself – but my first one from my Dad – is safe and a fond memory.

(Google Image) 

In 1839, Charles Goodyear discovered a way to cure rubber and make it a lasting and useable material. He called his process vulcanization, after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. In 1844, Goodyear patented his process. With the better rubber available, erasers became quite common.

(Google Image) 

The first patent for attaching an eraser to a pencil was issued in 1858 to a man from Philadelphia named Hyman Lipman. This patent was later held to be invalid because it was merely the combination of two things, without a new use.

At first penknives were used to sharpen pencils. They got their name from the fact that they were first used to shape feather quills used as early pens. In 1828, Bernard Lassimone, a French mathematician applied for a patent (French patent #2444) on an invention to sharpen pencils. However, it was not until 1847 that Therry des Estwaux first invented the manual pencil sharpener, as we know it.

Most of us today use this key as our eraser
(Google Image) 

Make no mistake, Rubber Eraser Day celebrates the invention of erasers. We all make mistakes. This day is designated to recognize and appreciate the value of that little plug (as manufacturers call them) that sits atop our pencils. When we make a mistake, they are the big "cover-up", make that eraser, of our booboo or faux pax. Just imagine how messy our documents would be without it!

Why not just call it "Eraser Day"? There's two reasons. The first erasers were made of rubber. Today, they are made of rubber, or vinyl.  Secondly, in Great Brittain, they are formally called "rubbers".

Today's Quote: To err is human, an eraser is divine!

(Google Image) 

I wonder if this eraser works as advertised….

Links:

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpen.htm#rubber

http://holidayinsights.com/other/rubbereraserday.htm