WEBVTT

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The sound is a really big part, I think,
of the experience of using a pencil,

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and it has this really
audible scratchiness.

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(Scratching)

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[Small thing. Big idea.]

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[Caroline Weaver on
the Pencil]

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The pencil is a very simple object.

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It's made of wood
with some layers of paint

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an eraser and a core,

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which is made out of graphite,
clay and water.

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Yeah, it took hundreds
of people over centuries

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to come to this design.

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And it's that long history
of collaboration

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that, to me, makes it
a very perfect object.

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The story of the pencil
starts with graphite.

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People started finding
really useful applications

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for this new substance.

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They cut it into small sticks

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and wrapped it in string
or sheepskin or paper

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and sold it on the streets of London

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to be used for writing or for drawing

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or, a lot of times,
by farmers and shepherds,

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who used it to mark their animals.

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Over in France,

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Nicolas-Jacques Conté figured out a method
of grinding the graphite,

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mixing it with powdered clay
and water to make a paste.

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From there, this paste was filled
into a mold and fired in a kiln,

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and the result was
a really strong graphite core

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that wasn't breakable,
that was smooth, usable --

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it was so much better than anything else
that existed at the time,

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and to this day, that's the method
that's still used in making pencils.

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Meanwhile, over in America,
in Concord, Massachusetts,

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it was Henry David Thoreau
who came up with the grading scale

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for different hardnesses of pencil.

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It was graded one through four,

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number two being the ideal
hardness for general use.

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The softer the pencil,
the more graphite it had in it,

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and the darker and smoother
the line will be.

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The firmer the pencil,
the more clay it had in it

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and the lighter and finer it will be.

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Originally, when pencils were handmade,
they were made round.

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There was no easy way to make them,

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and it was the Americans
who really mechanized the craft.

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A lot of people credit Joseph Dixon

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for being one of the first people
to start developing actual machines

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to do things like cut wood slats,
cut grooves into the wood,

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apply glue to them ...

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And they figured out
it was easier and less wasteful

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to do a hexagonal pencil,

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and so that became the standard.

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Since the early days of pencils,

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people have loved that they can be erased.

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Originally, it was bread crumbs

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that were used
to scratch away pencil marks

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and later, rubber and pumice.

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The attached eraser happened in 1858,

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when American stationer
Hymen Lipman patented the first pencil

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with an attached eraser,

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which really changed the pencil game.

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The world's first yellow pencil
was the KOH-I-NOOR 1500.

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KOH-I-NOOR did this crazy thing

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where they painted this pencil
with 14 coats of yellow paint

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and dipped the end in 14-carat gold.

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There is a pencil for everyone,

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and every pencil has a story.

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The Blackwing 602 is famous
for being used by a lot of writers,

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especially John Steinbeck
and Vladimir Nabokov.

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And then, you have
the Dixon pencil company.

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They're responsible
for the Dixon Ticonderoga.

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It's an icon,

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it's what people think of
when they think of a pencil

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and what they think of
when they think of school.

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And the pencil's really
a thing that, I think,

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the average user
has never thought twice about,

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how it's made or why it's made
the way it is,

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because it's just always been that way.

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In my opinion, there's nothing
that can be done

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to make the pencil better than it is.

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It's perfect.