Before graphite, people in medieval Europe wrote with lead-tin styluses called plummets. They left faint marks, dirtied hands, and were poisonous. By the 1500s, they were cased in wood. Graphite replaced them once people realized they were slowly poisoning themselves !

Spike in Google trends today…

Sir Earnest Shackleton's advertisement for his Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914. Thousands of people applied for the expedition after seeing it.