Editing Mechanical pencil (section)

==History==
[[Image:Sampson Mordan 1822 pencil-holders patent.png|thumb|left|Detail of the first patent for a mechanical pencil of Sampson Mordan, 1822]]
[[Conrad Gesner]] described a leadholder pencil in 1565, but the lead had to be  manually adjusted to sharpen it.<ref name=HP11>[[Henry Petroski]], ''The Pencil:A History of Design and Circumstances'', Random House, 2011 Random House, 2011 </ref> The earliest extant example of a mechanical pencil was found aboard the wreckage of HMS ''Pandora'', which sank in 1791.<ref>National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 168, No. 4 (October 1985), p. 450 (illustrated p. 451)</ref>

The first patent for a refillable pencil with lead-propelling mechanism was issued to [[Sampson Mordan]] and [[John Isaac Hawkins]] in [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] in 1822. After buying out Hawkins' patent rights, Mordan entered into a business partnership with Gabriel Riddle from 1823 to 1837. The earliest Mordan pencils are thus hallmarked SMGR.<ref name="LHM">{{cite web | url = http://www.leadholder.com/main-history.html | title= History of Leadholders | publisher = Leadholders.com | date = 2008-01-04 | accessdate = 2008-02-27}}</ref><ref name="Hill">{{cite web | url=http://markhillcollects.blogspot.com/2009/04/sampson-mordan-pencils.html | title=Sampson Mordan Pencils| publisher=Mark Hill Collects: The 20th Century Design and Collectibles Blog| date=2009-04-30 | accessdate=2009-12-12}}</ref> After 1837, Sampson Mordan ended the partnership with Riddle and continued to manufacture pencils as "S. Mordan & Co". His company continued to manufacture pencils and a wide range of silver objects until World War II, when the factory was bombed.

Between 1822 and 1874, more than 160 patents were registered pertaining to a variety of improvements to mechanical pencils. The first spring-loaded mechanical pencil was patented in 1877 and a twist-feed mechanism was developed in 1895. The 0.9&nbsp;mm lead was introduced in 1938, and later it was followed by 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 sizes. Eventually, 1.3 and 1.4&nbsp;mm mechanisms were available, and 0.4 and 0.2 versions are now produced.

The mechanical pencil became successful in [[Japan]] with some improvements in 1915 by [[Tokuji Hayakawa]], a metal worker who had just finished his apprenticeship. It was introduced as the "Ever-Ready Sharp Pencil". Success was not immediate, since the metal shaft—essential for the pencil's long life—was unfamiliar to users. However, the Ever-Ready Sharp began selling in huge numbers after a company from [[Tokyo]] and [[Osaka]] made large orders.<ref name=Sharp>{{cite web | url = http://sharp-world.com/corporate/info/his/only_one/index.html | work = Product Story | title = 1915: Hayakawa Mechanical Pencil | publisher = SHARP Corporate | date = | accessdate = 8 August 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://sharp-world.com/corporate/info/his/h_company/1915_1919/index.html | title = 1915-1919 : Invention of Ever-Sharp Pencil | publisher = SHARP Corporate | date = | accessdate = March 2009}}</ref> Later, Tokuji Hayakawa's company got its name from that pencil: [[Sharp Corporation|Sharp]].<ref name=Sharp/>

At nearly the same time in the US, [[Charles R. Keeran]] was developing a similar pencil that would be the precursor of most of today's pencils. Keeran's design was ratchet-based, whereas Hayakawa's was screw-based. These two development histories – Hayakawa and Keeran – are often mistakenly combined into one.<ref name=TaleOfTwoPencils>{{cite web | url = http://www.vintagepens.com/Eversharp_history.htm | title = A Tale of Two Pencils: Keeran's Eversharp & Hayakawa's Ever-Ready Sharp | site= vintage Pens}}</ref> Keeran patented his lead pencil in 1915 and soon afterwards arranged production.<ref name=TaleOfTwoPencils/> After some improvements, his design was marketed as the "[[Eversharp]]" pencil by the Wahl Adding Machine Company; by the early 1920s, Wahl had sold more than 12,000,000 Eversharps.<ref name=TaleOfTwoPencils/>