What is National Pencil Day?
Each year, the National Pencil Day utensil honors the writing utensil that has achieved more than just teach millions of letters the alphabet and draw straight lines. In addition, it has helped win wars and created amazing artwork.
On this day in 1858, Hymen Lipman became the first patent for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil. Pencils and erasers existed separately before that time. Lipman combined the two devices, making the two items much more convenient to use. The intuitive businessman made envelopes for his stationery shop and was the first to apply adhesive to envelope flaps.
World war ii pencils
Cumberland Pencil Company out of Kenswick, England, during World War II, manufactured pencils that were supposed to function. However, on either end, the pencils were hollow with graphite. The designers had stowed maps to help captured military personnel in their emigration to freedom between the graphite and liberation. They were designed by Charles Fraser Smith in 1942, and workers would assemble them under secrecy at night, when the factory closed. The miniature maps detailed escape routes from war camps' prisoner to miniature compass, as well as a miniature compass. These little weapons were distributed to Royal Airforce members and then sent to POW camps throughout the war.
