INTERESTING PENCIL FACTS . . .

* More than 14 billion pencils are produced in the world every year  
- enough to circle the globe 62 times.

* One pencil will draw a line 70 miles long.

* Pencils don't really contain lead.
That gray matter is graphite and clay.

* Two billion pencils are made in the United States each year.

* The pencil was invented more than 400 years ago, in 1565.

* Famous novelists Ernest Hemingway and John
Steinbeck used pencils to write their books.

* Pencils didn't have erasers on them until 100 years ago because 
teachers felt they would encourage children to make mistakes.

* It would cost $50 in labor and materials for a person to 
make a 10-cent pencil.

* One million pencils are used annually on the
floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

* The average pencil can be sharpened 17 times,
write 45,000 words or draw a line 35 miles long.

* A good-size tree will make about 300,000 pencils.

* Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" in pencil.