Re:Overengineered Japanese Mechanical Pencils [video]
by quesera on Saturday April 16, 2022 @01:50PM
(#31054390)
True. Metalpoint is not traditionally considered "pencil", but it can definitely be used for writing/drawing and the stylus has the same appearance and basic use.
Anecdote: In ~5th grade science class, we had a folded sheet of metallic lead that was passed around for students to handle. I suspect this practice has been discontinued!
At the time, I thought pencils contained real lead (Pb), so I tried to use the lead sheet to mark paper. It worked well! But not as well as (and had different marking characteristics from) a regular pencil. I assumed the improvements were part of the productization, but that the pencil still used real lead.
Wikipedia says, on the discovery of naturally-occurring graphite:
> Chemistry was in its infancy and the substance was thought to be a form of lead. Consequently, it was called plumbago (Latin for "lead ore").
It's funny how names stick. 500 years and counting on this one.
Anecdote: In ~5th grade science class, we had a folded sheet of metallic lead that was passed around for students to handle. I suspect this practice has been discontinued!
At the time, I thought pencils contained real lead (Pb), so I tried to use the lead sheet to mark paper. It worked well! But not as well as (and had different marking characteristics from) a regular pencil. I assumed the improvements were part of the productization, but that the pencil still used real lead.
Wikipedia says, on the discovery of naturally-occurring graphite:
> Chemistry was in its infancy and the substance was thought to be a form of lead. Consequently, it was called plumbago (Latin for "lead ore").
It's funny how names stick. 500 years and counting on this one.