When it was invented: 1822
Who invented it: Slavoljub Eduard Penkala
Why it’s underrated: At one point, not even wooden pencils existed. Originally, people scratched letters into tablets of clay.
Wooden pencils, invented in 1812, were a huge improvement, but they need to be sharpened frequently. The invention of mechanical pencils made it possible to always have a sharp pencil without ever having to sharpen it.
Even in elementary schools, most kids now use mechanical pencils. Without them, they’d be stuck using the black, wall-mounted hand sharpeners that we grew up with.
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