The French are the reborn parents of pencils (yes, without them, maybe the whole world would be using brushes): In 1795, Nicolas-Jacques Conté invented the clay-graphite mixed material production process. In 1828, Bernard Lassimone invented the pencil sharpener (or pencil sharpener). In 1847, Therry des Estwaux invented the mechanical pencil sharpener. There is a lot more about pencils, /2008/03/01/20_unkown_fact_of_pencil.html