Pencil thereby pushing a new tip to the top. Invented by Harold Grossman for Empire Pencil Company in 1967 and subsequently improved upon by Arthur D. Little for Empire from 1969 through the early 1970s; the plastic pencil was commercialised by Empire as the "EPCON" Pencil. These pencils were co-extruded, extruding a plasticised graphite mix within a wood-composite core. Residual graphite from a pencil stick is not poisonous, and graphite is harmless if consumed. Although lead has not been used for writing since antiquity, lead poisoning from pencils was not uncommon. Until the middle of the 20th century the paint used
Negro (lead pencil) art which was dark enough to be reproduced with early photographic technology. It was used as a replacement for lithographic printmaking, just as pen and ink line art essentially took the place of intaglio in late 19th-century illustration. While the name is used in the artistic sense, the word "Negro" literally, depictions of stylized African natives have been used in marketing campaigns and product packaging. One of the original producers of negro pencils was the Koh-i-Noor company, however those manufactured by the company today are composed of lead that is slightly less dark and waxy than the originals. Cretacolor produces