The History of pencils
In the past, pencils were just a piece of graphite. Then people made a wooden casing around it so they wouldn't get graphite on their hands. The pencil keeps getting more and more advanced, for example, they were thinned and finally the mechanical pencil was invented by Tojuki Hayakawa. This pencil was called the Ever-Ready Sharp Pencil.
Pencils Today
Today, pencils are very advanced depending on the manufacturer. They vary from the size of lead, to the actual size of the pencil, to where the button to dispense lead is placed. Mechanical pencils are a very popular choice of writing instrument today.