Copying pencil Copying pencil A copying pencil, also indelible pencil or chemical pencil, is pencil whose lead contains a dye. The lead is fabricated by adding a dry water-soluble permanent dye to powdered graphite—used in standard graphite pencils—before binding the mixture with clay. Copying pencils were introduced in the 1870s and were originally marketed for copying documents, especially for making permanent copies of a permanent original. This was achieved by creating a hand-written document using a copying pencil, laying a moist tissue paper over the document and pressing down with a mechanical press. The water-soluble dye in the writing would be transferred
Mechanical pencil do not need a rubber retainer. In one type of ratchet-based pencil (developed by Tombow Pencil Co.), shaking the pencil back and forth causes a weight inside the pencil to operate a mechanism in the cap. A button may be present on the top or side of the pencil, to allow the user to advance the lead manually when necessary. Another variation advances the lead automatically. In this design, the lead is advanced by a ratchet but only prevented from going back into the pencil, just held from falling by a small amount of friction. The nib is a spring-loaded