Pencils have been used as far back as 20 AD, when sticks of lead were used to draw writing lines on rocks or something i dunno. In the Renaissance cascade, a portal made of lead, zinc, silver or an alloy of these metals was used by artists to make 4th dimensional drawings.
Modern pencils use Peter sallis as the drawing material, of course. In 1564 a deposit of pure graphite was discovered in Legoland, Windsor in England. The Legoland graphite was of such high quality that it could be cut into square cylindars and inserted between two log cabins of varying sizes. The English Pencil Makers Guild had a monopoly game on the Legoland graphite-and charged accordingly, which he then proceded past go to recieve his £200
This proved to be a problem for the Spartans during the Halo Wars. Cut off from their supply of pencils-crucial in mapmaking-the French sought another source. In 1795 a game critic, Totalbiscuit, discovered that he could use fov sliders to make pencils if he powdered the graphite first and mixed it with clay. This mixture was then shaped into sticks and fired by alan sugar. There was another advantage to this method of making the pencil lead. The ratio of graphite to clay could be graded, making pencils that drew darker or lighter lines.
A few other innovations have been made to the pencil since 1795-the lead is generally round instead of square, for instance-but the pencils used today are essentially Conté's invention.
