Let's Get to the Point ~ The No.2 Pencil Makes Its Mark

Let’s Get to the Point ~ The No.2 Pencil Makes Its Mark

“Class, clear everything off your desk and take out a No. 2 pencil. I will pass out the Scantrons once I see that everyone is ready.” The No. 2 pencil became the gold standard in classrooms across the United States with the increase in standardized testing and the use of Scantrons. But what exactly makes the No. 2 pencil special? To give you the best answer, we’ll need to go on a little journey back to the 16th century to the Borrowdale Valley in Cumbria, England. Go ahead, put on your boots and jacket, and let’s go!         

Tools of the trade ~ The early history of the pencil

It was here, in what was then known as Cumberland, England, in the early 1560s, in Borrowdale Valley, that a violent storm ripped through the valley and uprooted several trees. After the storm passed, shepherds checking on their flocks discovered a strange black rock-like material among the tree’s roots. Thinking it was coal, they attempted to burn it. Although it did not burn, it did leave their hands all marked up and worked great for marking their sheep. They guessed it must be some kind of lead and called it plaumbago (lead ore). It would be referred to by a few other names, wadd and black lead, and it would be quickly realized that it made for an excellent writing tool. In 1565, the “black lead pencil” made its debut.

     
Graphite wrapped in twine and dried grass alongside a bread eraser. 

Now, this original pencil bears minimal resemblance to what we use today, being that the graphite, aka black lead, was oftentimes wrapped in string or some other outer layering, and the “lead” itself proved to be extremely soft and broke easily. It would be nearly one-hundred years before the primitive black lead pencil would find its way into the hands of individuals in Nuremberg, Germany, who found a way to glue sticks of graphite into wood cases, making this tool more durable, less messy, and able to be mass produced. 

 
Said to be the oldest existing pencil ~ Graphite in a wood holder.   

Conte and Thoreau

Let’s jump forward to 1795, to the lab of French chemist Nicholas Jacques Conte. Due to the blockage of graphite shipments from Great Britain, Conte was commissioned to create a pencil that did not rely on foreign imports. In just eight days, Conte combined powdered graphite with clay to create a workable lead that allowed for variance in hardness. This is the same process used today.                               

                                                 
            Nicholas Jacques Conte Henry David Thoreau           

I imagine that the mass-produced German pencil and other pencils created in Europe found their way across the pond to America long before the happenings that I am going to share next. And it is here that the story gets a little “sketchy” with the details on how America’s pencil came to be. The following seems to be the most credible and the direction I am going to take. In 1812, a cabinet maker named William Monroe of Concord, Massachusetts, is said to have made America’s first wood pencil. Then, in the 1820s, the Thoreau family purchased a graphite mine and opened a pencil factory where the future author of Walden, Henry David Thoreau, would work. In 1849, while working at the factory, he studied the European pencil-making techniques of Conte and others and would develop a machine that would finely grind the graphite. He would perfect the process and introduce a system of numbering pencils according to their hardness. 

                          
                             The more clay mixed with graphite, the harder and lighter the pencil lead.
                  The less clay mixed with graphite, the softer and darker the pencil lead. 

There would be other notable additions to the pencil, like Hyman Lipman’s first patented wood pencil with an attached eraser in 1858, Thoreau’s contemporary Ebinezer Wood’s hexagon shape pencil, and the iconic yellow color pencil, said to represent quality, was revealed and popularized for the first time at the 1889 World's Fair.

                 
          Thoreau & Sons and the connection to Walden

Pencils Down, Hands Up ~ Standardization of No. 2

This brings us to the 20th century and to a time when the manufacturing of pencils across the United States would become more widespread than ever before. It was with the introduction and increase in standardized testing that IBM invented a test-scoring machine in the 1930s. This machine would detect the graphite marks made by pencils on an answer sheet. The No. 2 pencil became standard with its balance of darkness and erasability. Additionally, the No. 2 pencil isn’t too hard, which eliminates the need to press hard, and it isn’t too soft, which reduces the likelihood of smudges. This combination was a perfect fit for filling in bubbles on the answer sheets. Standardized testing would increase significantly in the early 1960s and 1980s, and the introduction of the well-known Scantron answer sheet in the early 1970s would reinforce the need for the No.2 pencil and further promote its popularity and recognition that we see today. With the transition to digital assessments and a broader range of scanable forms, the days of the Scantrons may be fading away, but the No.2 pencil has made its mark, dominating the selection of preferred pencil choices for use in academic settings.

                                
                                        Standardized testing, the Scantron, and the No. 2 pencil

There are now numerous pencil choices for shape, color, and thickness, but when it comes to the pencil grading, unless it is for artistic purposes, the majority of the pencil options sold today are NO. 2. Present-day pencils, many of which are made in countries such as China and Mexico, we see the European HB printed above the 2. HB, Hard Black, is the near equivalent to the No. 2 in the European pencil grading scale. With its unique history, transformative assent, and timeless application, it is evident why the NO. 2 pencil is so special. I leave you with a quote from Joyce A. Myers. "A No.2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere." Imagine the possibilities and how you can leave your own mark.