The pencil “lead” is actually a mixture of graphite and clay. More clay in the mixture makes the lead harder. A harder lead has a higher number. Pencils are numbered from 1-3 but most people use a ...

the Frenchman Nicolas-Jacques Conté pioneered a way of blending graphite and clay into a pencil lead - the birth of the pencils we still use today. History contains many names linked to the ...

But wouldn’t it be nice if the graphite tip of a pencil could be turned into diamond? After all, they are both composed entirely of carbon atoms. The main difference between pencil lead and the ...

The Graphite Pencil was discovered before 1565, when a deposit of graphite was discovered near Grey Knotts of Seathwaite in Cumbria, England. The locals being traditional farmers found that it was ...