How Green Is Your Pencil?

[glatt]

So with all this talk, I figured I'd look into the pencil and lead relationship.

According to wikipedia (I know, I know) graphite has been used in pencils since somewhere in the 1500's and 1600's.

Wikipedia claims that actual lead was never used in pencils, but there is no citation for that.

There is a mention of lead styluses being used on papyrus, but there is also no citation given for that.

But the interesting thing is that Wikipedia says that when graphite was discovered in the 1500's, the primitive chemists back then thought it was a form of lead. So they called graphite "lead." That's why pencils are said to have lead. It's simple ignorance passed down over the centuries.