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A little wonder, every day

From graphite to the wooden pencil

circa-1690 pencil holder by Michael Butterfield, in the Louvre; photographed by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 France. [Source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pencil_holder-OA_10818-IMG_3620.JPG). Visually checked.
post-medieval lead pencil, tentatively identified as such, photographed by Heather Beeton for National Museums Liverpool, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. [Source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Post_medieval_lead_pencil_(FindID_1029454).jpg). Visually checked. The collection describes it as a possible pencil dated 1500–1700.
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circa-1690 pencil holder by Michael Butterfield, in the Louvre; photographed by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 France. [Source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pencil_holder-OA_10818-IMG_3620.JPG). Visually checked.

Listen to fact0:00 / —

In 1565, naturalist Conrad Gessner described a device with graphite fixed in wood; this is among the earliest written references to a modern-type pencil. It should not be called an indisputable moment of invention: graphite had been used for marking before then.