The first pencil to have an attached eraser was presented by Hymen Lipman on 30 March, 1858 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Pencils were first mass produced in the German city of Nuremberg in 1662.

Most pencils are hexagonal to keep them from rolling off a desk or table and they’re often yellow because, historically, China is a producer of the world’s best graphite and yellow is associated with the Asian country’s royalty.

More than half of all pencils come from China. In 2004, factories there turned out 10 billion pencils, enough to circle the earth more than 40 times.

One pencil can draw a line of 56 kilometers (35 miles) long.

A pencil can also write about 45,000 words.

The word PENCIL comes from the Latin word pencillus (translated as little tail) although another theory claims it was coined from the French pincel, meaning little paintbrush.

Thomas Edison had pencils specially made so that they were thicker than regular pencils.

Pencils can write under water and in zero gravity. To prove this fact, pencils were used on space missions by American and Russian astronauts.

Before erasers were invented, writers and artists used bread crumbs to erase mistakes.

Earnest Hemingway and John Steinbeck both used pencils to write their novels.

The first mechanical pencil factory was located in England. However, it was destroyed in a bombing during WWII.

Most pencils sold in America today have eraser tips, while those sold in Europe usually have none.

National Pencil Day is held on the 30th day of March every year.