Sharpen Up

Hymen Lipman is the individual who holds the first patent for placing an eraser on the end of the pencil. The year was 1858 Lipman was an immigrant to the United states from Kingston Jamaica. He worked as the lead stationer in Philadelphia and also started the first envelope company in the United States. While he held the patent for the first pencil with an eraser he would not have it long. 
Lipman would sell his patent to Reckendorfer for $100,000. A suit against Faber teh pencil manufacturer but the suit would be lost according to the Supreme Court of the United States. 

So why are pencils yellow in color ?? The yellow pencil occured in 1890 when the L&C Hardmuth Company of Austria Hungary introduced their Koh-I-Noor brand of pencil. The pencil was meant to be the world's best and most expensive pencil. Because other pencil companies desired to be associated with the high quality they also painted their pencils yellow. 

I have often heard the statement
Pencils are for those that intend to make mistakes
However, there are many greats that have been noted to use pencil These individuals include:

• Thomas Edison had his own pencils personally made. The company Eagle pencil made Edison's pencil made 3 inches long an a bit thicker than standard pencils. These pencils had softer graphite than other pencils as well. 
• Vladimir Nabokov rewrote everything he had ever published, usually several times, by pencil.
• John Steinbeck used pencil obsessively , sometimes using up to 60 a day. 
• Vincen van Gogh used only pencils made by Faber. These pencils are also selected by Carpenters over others
• If you are Johnny Carson fan then you should know that he often played with pencils while on the show. Did you also know that these pencils had erasers on both ends?? 
• Roald Dahl the great children book author also had an issue with pencils. These pencils all had yellow casings. There were 6 pencils when he would start the day and only when all 6 needed sharpening would he resharpen the pencils

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