pencil, n.Trivia

Pencils are yellow because in the 19th century, pencil companies began to color their pencils yellow to show an association with China (since the best graphite was from China) and high quality (in that yellow was a royal color in China).

Pencils never had lead, but people had thought graphite was a form of lead.

A lead pencil will draw a line about 35 miles long (or write approximately 50,000 English words).

The average lead pencil will write about 50,000 words in English.

Pencils have never actually contained lead, but are called so because the Romans used lead as a writing tool.