That is an excellent essay, probably why the "artist" used a pencil in the first place. And Henry Petroski did a whole book on the evolution of the design of t

That is an excellent essay, probably why the "artist" used a pencil in the first place. And Henry Petroski did a whole book on the evolution of the design of the pencil in the early 1990s: http://www.amazon.com/Pencil-History-Design-Circumstance/dp/0679734155/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292925202&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Pencil-History-Design-Circumstance/dp/...