Writing, chalk drawing and using various solid-state colour materials has been know to man since the Paleolithic age, as is known in today’s primitive cultures. But all of these writing tools can not be considered ancestors of today’s pencil.Its true first ancestor are the sticks of melted lead which first appeared in ancient Greece, but have been forgotten, only to reappear again in the 16th century in Italy. During that time, such sticks were used mainly for drawing out lines on a writing surface. To improve the ease of holding, and to avoid smudging fingers, the stick was usually inserted in a leather cover. It was not until 1564., when a Graphite mine was discovered near Bordoval, England - county of Cumberland, that all requirements for the invention of today’s pencil were met.Soon after, the English began creating pencils which were very similar to ones we have today, since they were made from a thin graphite stick surrounded by wood, just like today’s pencils. Since that was the only known graphite mine in the world at the time, the English, being good salesman, made large sums of money, since they had a monopoly on the product with such a great demand.Afraid of overly exploiting the mine, the English government restricted its exploitation to only six weeks per year, and the extracted ore was placed under the strictest control. The penalty for anyone caught stealing graphite was death. However, as time passed, people discovered other graphite mines around the world, making the English lose this very profitable monopoly.It was not until 1790, when a French mechanic and painter Nicolas Jacques Conte (1755.-1805.) came to an idea to create a mixture of graphite dust and clay, which was later baked, to form a pencil core out of the two. This is the process used for production of pencils today. More clay in the pencil makes the pencil harder, more graphite makes the pencil softer.