A brief history of the pencil, by Chris Buckley

Interestingly it is not only the good people of "Project 2008" who noticed the day of celebration of the humble pencil. As I sat down to peruse the Sunday papers yesterday I noticed a column by the literary tour de force that is Sandy Toksvig, in which she discussed the history, cultural impact and dark side of the graphite and lead based writing instrument. Anyway, I digress:

Hymen L. Lipman is credited with registering the first patent for a pencil with an attached eraser on March 30th, 1858. (US Patent 19783)

In 1862 Lipman sold his patent to a Jospeph Reckendorfer for $100,000, who went to sue the pencil manufacturer Faber for infringement ^[1]. In 1875 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Reckendorfer declaring the patent invalid because his invention was actually a combination of two already known things with no new use^[2].

1. Petroski, Henry (1990). The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-57422-2; ISBN 0-679-73415-5, page 171

2. ^ http://supreme.justia.com/us/92/347/case.html Reckendorfer v. Faber 92 U.S. 347 (1875)