Pencils, erasers, ballpoint pens - it was always fun to start a new term with a new brace of equipment in your pencil case. And have you ever thought about the history behind those school essentials?

Pencils clack-clack-clack as they shoot through a paint box and assume their various hues. Next is the din of ratcheting as aluminum ferrules and erasers are punched onto ends. Now and then a ...