Q 01/05

Graphite was first mistaken for an ore of which metal, a mix-up that still names the pencil's core?

A) Zinc

B) Lead

C) Iron

D) Tin

Answer · why

B) Lead

Lead was the best guess of sixteenth-century miners, who called the mineral plumbago, Latin for the metal's ore. No pencil core has ever contained any...

Q 02/05

Which Japanese electronics firm is named after a mechanical pencil Tokuji Hayakawa invented in 1915?

A) Sony

B) Casio

C) Sharp

D) Canon

Answer · why

C) Sharp

Sharp takes its name from the Ever-Ready Sharp pencil; after the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake destroyed the pencil business, the company turned to maki...

Q 03/05

Which everyday food lifted pencil marks off paper before purpose-made erasers appeared in 1770?

A) Bread

B) Potato

C) Cheese

D) Butter

Answer · why

A) Bread

Bread without its crust was a common pencil eraser, and Tokyo students in the Meiji era were still being handed it for the job.

Q 04/05

Charles Fraser-Smith, a wartime gadget maker linked to James Bond's Q, hid what inside pencils?

A) Cameras

B) Saws

C) Radios

D) Maps

Answer · why

D) Maps

Maps tucked into pencils were among the secret devices Fraser-Smith built for British agents in occupied Europe, along with steel shoelaces that doubl...

Q 05/05

Which colour did the luxury Koh-i-Noor pencil make famous, prompting American rivals to copy it?

A) White

B) Yellow

C) Crimson

D) Silver

Answer · why

B) Yellow

Yellow made the Koh-i-Noor stand out when most pencils were dark or unpainted, so competitors borrowed the colour to suggest the same quality.