Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Flat pencil sides improve grip and stop pencils from rolling onto floors. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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Yes. It sits on the Everyday Life shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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Mondo Knows Facts

Hexagonal pencil barrels prevent pencils rolling off slanted desks

Flat pencil sides improve grip and stop pencils from rolling onto floors

Joseph Dixon pioneered hexagonal wood-cased pencils in the nineteenth century. The six flat sides keep pencils from rolling off tilted school desks and drafting tables, while providing flat surfaces for finger grip and making manufacturing cut efficiency higher compared to round pencils.

Where this comes from

Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Tags: pencils, stationery, design

Hexagonal pencil barrels prevent pencils rolling off slanted desks: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Flat pencil sides improve grip and stop pencils from rolling onto floors. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a everyday life fact?: Yes. It sits on the Everyday Life shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.