XPost: sci.space.policy, sci.physics, sci.electronics.design   
      
   In sci.physics Greg Goss  wrote:   
   > jimp@specsol.spam.sux.com wrote:   
   >   
   >>How much better, faster, and cheaper has the pencil become since it's   
   >>invention in the 16th century?   
   >   
   > Pencils that don't need to be sharpened are only about a century old.   
   > (Electronics company Sharp started that way.)   
      
   They are a different thing but they haven't changed much since invention   
   either.   
      
   > When I was a kid, my mother had one that cost $18 and took a minute or   
   > so to withdraw a new lead into its body.  Other than lacking the   
   > magnet (hers could be stuck onto stuff for convenient access), better   
   > pencils are now about the price of six wooden pencils.  I haven't   
   > sharpened a pencil other than on an "emergency" basis for 45 years.   
   >   
   > Pencils were a nickel when I was a kid and a dime now.  Since I was a   
   > kid, the value of that dime has decreased tenfold.  So pencils are now   
   > five times cheaper than in the sixties.  I assume technology did it.   
   > (Perhaps containerized TRANSPORT technology to bring us the product of   
   > chinese semi-slaves.)   
      
   Mass production in huge quantities by automated traditional manufacturing   
   techniques and cheap shipping from China.   
      
      
   --   
   Jim Pennino   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)