Mechanical Pencil Day – July 5, 2024

History
Timeline
FAQs
Importance
Celebrate

Mechanical Pencil Day is celebrated each year on July 5 all around the world. Mechanical pencils have so many uses in the classroom and workplace. Even if you use pens for all your written work, we often do draft calculations and writings with pencils to avoid making an error in our final copy. While the world prefers digital forms of communication, mechanical pencils make writing and design easier and add a personal touch to them. Mechanical Pencil Day celebrates this marvelous invention and encourages more people to take up the lost art of writing with pencils. Celebrate the day by penning heartfelt notes to your loved ones with a mechanical pencil.

History of Mechanical Pencil Day

Pencils have been around for quite some time. The first pencils were created around the time when graphite mines were being discovered in Europe, in the early 16th century. The first prototype of the pencil was designed by Conrad Gesner in 1565. He was a Swiss naturalist and bibliographer. The first pencils were graphite sticks wrapped in string! Later they were inserted into wooden tubes so they could be sharpened. (it was easier to write with a wood pencil, too).

The first mechanical pencil was developed in 1822 by Sampson Mordan and John Isaac Hawkins in Britain. These pencils had tools to move the lead, which meant the user no longer had to manually sharpen the lead. Following its invention, many companies began mass-producing mechanical pencils.

Today mechanical pencils come in three types: rachet-based, clutch-based, and screw-based. Mechanical pencils are available in different varieties of lead widths and have multiple frames. Your mechanical pencil could have a body of plastic, metal, or wood. Though mainly used for writing, mechanical pencils are very useful for creating art and designs too.

Since mechanical pencils are so slick, it makes it easier to create fine details that may be difficult otherwise. And of course, there’s no need to use a pencil sharper. Mechanical Pencil Day celebrates the history of mechanical pencils. There are pencil collectors who collect antique mechanical pencils! Do you have a friend who is also very enthusiastic about mechanical pencils?

Mechanical Pencil Day timeline

16th Century

Styluses Appear

A stylus is made when a lead is carefully shaved to a point and inserted into a wooden handle, used to make marks on parchment, papyrus, or wax-coated tablets.

18th Century

Oldest Mechanical Pencil Found

The earliest existing example of a mechanical pencil is found aboard a wreckage H.m.S. “Pandora.”

1812

America’s First Wooden Pencil

William Munroe makes America’s first wooden pencils from the popular Eastern Red Cedar trees in Tennesse.

1915

The Ever-Ready Sharp Pencil

Tokuji Hayakawa, a metalworker, innovates the mechanical pencil, which makes the demand for it surge in Japan.

Mechanical Pencil Day FAQs

What is a mechanical pencil used for

Mechanical pencils are used to provide lines of constant width without sharpening, in technical drawing and quick, neat writing.

Is a mechanical pencil better than a pencil?

Mechanical pencils are the safer of the two. They last longer and do not need sharpening.

How long can a mechanical pencil last?

Pencils generally have enough graphites to write 45,000 words, which, if not lost, can serve you for a few years.

Mechanical Pencil Day Activities

Collect mechanical pencils
A grand way to celebrate Mechanical Pencil Day is by collecting mechanical pencils from different years and different brands. You will be surprised to find out the vast range of mechanical pencils available in the market.
Write with mechanical pencils
Ditch your laptop and other forms of digital communication on Mechanical Pencil Day and celebrate the day by writing with mechanical pencils. How about an entire day of handwritten communications?
Give someone a mechanical pencil
Mechanical pencils make for great gifts for your artist friends and even schoolgoing members of the family. Surprise your loved ones with gifts of mechanical pencils on Mechanical Pencil Day!

5 Facts About Pencils

A pencil can be sharpened 17 times
This also means that with one pencil, you can write 45,000 words.
One tree can make many pencils
As many as 300,00 pencils can be made from one tree.
Pencil is not made only from graphite
Some pencils are made of coal.
China is the number one pencil maker
The country makes 10 billion pencils annually.
Thomas Edison used special pencils
His pencils were twice as thick as the average.

Why We Love Mechanical Pencil Day

Loved by everyone
Mechanical pencils are not just loved by everyone but also incredibly useful to all of us. We love Mechanical Pencil Day because it’s a celebration of one of our favorite writing tools.
Promotes the lost art of handwriting
We hardly write anything with our hands anymore! Thanks to our digital modes of communication, writing with pencils are becoming increasingly rare. Mechanical Pencil Day inspires us to write with our hands.
Celebrates human inventions
Mechanical Pencil Day is also a celebration of our incredible achievements in inventing tools for literacy and education. Today we cannot imagine a classroom with pens and pencils, and we have many inventors to thank for them!