Modern mechanical pencil
Portaminas moderno
- Date
- 1822 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Sampson Mordan and John Isaac Hawkins
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
Mordan and Hawkins patented in London the first refillable pencil with a lead-propelling mechanism, improving on manual lead holders known since the 16th century. Mordan continued manufacturing them alone after 1837.
Conrad Gessner had already described a lead holder in 1565, but it required manual sharpening; Mordan and Hawkins's was the first with a refillable propelling mechanism.
What it led to
- Over 160 improvement patents between 1822 and 1874
- Spring-loaded mechanical pencil (1877)
- Charles Keeran's Eversharp (1913), the first mass-produced mechanical pencil