The Sharpie Liquid Pencil, due to arrive this fall, looks like an interesting toy. If it performs like the Sharpies I’ve used, it will be the first pencil to bleed through the page. [Cue rimshot.]
Despite the claim to innovation (here, for instance), there is nothing new about liquid graphite pencils, which Scripto and Parker first offered in 1955. That the Sharpie Liquid Pencil’s line becomes permanent after three days — that is something new.
[Popular Mechanics, June 1955.]
A related post
The Sharpie Liquid Pencil (It’s a dud)
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Liquid graphite pencils
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comments: 6
Hmmm. Why would we need this? Or want it? It didn't catch on in '55--possibly for a reason. Kind of a stumper.
I did buy a new writing implement last year--a ceramic-lead marking pen to use in quilting. The fine line is a plus, and it's easier to live with than a chalk pencil.
In the Washington Post piece, there’s an explanation from a Sharpie executive: “sharpening standard pencils takes up valuable classroom time, and mechanical pencil leads seem to constantly break.” So maybe this pencil will be popular in school.
I abandoned pencils early on in HS--too smeary (especially over time.) And by college, used pen even in math classes; similarly, ink and paper for the NYT puzzle in Present Day. But I see what you mean. Predict, however, that poorer kids will still be using ye olde Ticonderoga #2.
Just an fyi, that whole "becomes permanent" does not seem to be true so far. It has been about 8 days and my original writing sample is still erasable.
Thanks for the heads-up. Anyone interested in the Sharpie should read OSG’s review.
Having the writing become permanent after awhile is not new.
This is just a variation on the Erasermate.
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