TED Talk: Why the Pencil is Perfect [Video]

The Dixon Ticonderoga.

I can still see the bright yellow Dixon Ticonderoga pencil with the perfect sharp tip sitting on my third grade desk as I waited for my teacher to hand out math tests.

My pencil always had to have a sharp tip.

Which meant I spent a fair amount of time sharpening it at the pencil sharpener, much to my teacher Mrs. Simpson’s frustration.

Before she could pass the tests out to my row, I picked up my pencil, twirled it around with my fingers, switched it to my left hand, and started tapping it on the palm of my right hand.

And that’s when it happened.

The tip of the pencil lodged into my palm. I let out a screech at the sharp pain as I gazed at the pencil stuck upright in my right hand.

Mrs. Simpson stopped handing out the tests. And quickly made a dash to to my desk, seeing the pencil and the blood slowly dripping from my hand.

I headed to the principal’s office to see the nurse, with tears running down my face. The nurse shook her head as she saw me.

Eventually the pencil was removed.

But despite cleaning and soaking the wound over the next week, the graphite dust never seemed to dissolve out of my palm.

My wound healed over, but the gray mark remained.

I would point out the mark on my palm for years as I shared the story with my family and friends.

Decades later, I can still see the faint gray mark in my palm.

This week when I visited the TED site and saw the title of Carolyn Weaver’s TED talk, Why the pencil is perfect, I looked at my right palm, thought about my third grade class, and my teacher Mrs. Simpson.

And how much I still love a Dixon Ticonderoga pencil with a sharp tip.

Why the Pencil is Perfect

Weaver starts her talk off with

It has a real scratchiness…

followed by the scratching sounds of a pencil on paper.

She continues with the history of the pencil, explaining how the collaboration over time has led the pencil to be “the perfect object.”

Three things I learned about the pencil that I didn’t know before I saw the video:

• Graphite was cut into strips, wrapped in string, sheepskin, or paper, and sold on London streets for people to write or draw with.
• Henry David Thoreau came up with the grading scale for pencil hardness. Who knew?
• And that hexagonal shape? It’s easier and less wasteful than round pencils.

The video is short, a little over three minutes. Hope you enjoy it!

Source: TED
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