Who invented erasers for pencils

By the early s, the Faber company made pencils with attached erasers. The United States Supreme Court determined that the idea of combining a pencil with an eraser could not be patented. The reason for this decision was the fact that combining the pencil and the eraser did not change the function of either. This decision opened the way for numerous companies to make pencils with erasers.

In , a hollow eraser, into which a pencil could be inserted, was invented by J. Blair of Philadelphia. Earlier versions are also known to have existed. In , the Eagle company made pencils with erasers inserted directly into the wooden case of the pencil. Other companies soon made similar pencils, which became known as penny pencils because they were inexpensive. The availability of pencils with attached erasers in schoolrooms was at first controversial. It was believed that the ability to correct errors easily would make students careless.

Despite this concern, pencils with erasers were extremely popular. Pencils without erasers are somewhat more common in Europe. The most important raw material in an eraser is rubber. The rubber may be natural or synthetic. Natural rubber is obtained from latex produced by the rubber tree Hevea brasilienesis. Synthetic rubber exists in a wide variety of forms. The most common synthetic rubber is derived from the chemicals styrene and butadiene.

Styrene is a liquid derived from ethylbenzene. Ethylbenzene is usually made from ethylene and benzene, both of which are derived from petroleum. Butadiene is a gas, derived either directly from petroleum or from substances known as butanes and butenes, which are derived from petroleum.

Other ingredients added to rubber include pigments that change the color of the eraser. White can be produced with zinc oxide and titanium oxide. Red can be produced by iron oxide. Many other colors can be produced with various organic dyes. An important ingredient added to almost all rubber is sulfur.

Sulfur allows rubber to be vulcanized. This process was invented by Charles Goodyear in It uses heat and sulfur to make rubber more durable and resistant to heat.

Various other ingredients may be added to rubber. People tried to correct mistakes they made while writing even before eraser was invented. To erase marks from the paper, they used tablets of rubber or wax. To remove ink from parchment or papyrus they used bits of rough stone like sandstone or pumice. In Japan, they used soft bread.

It was not until that we found out that a natural rubber made from plants can be used as an eraser. That year, Edward Nairne, an English engineer, picked up a piece of rubber instead of breadcrumbs and discovered that rubber can erase pencil markings. Solution to that problem came in when inventor Charles Goodyear invented the method of curing the rubber - vulcanization.

This process made rubber more durable and allowed for the eraser to become a household item. Hymen Lipman patented an attaching of an eraser to the end of a pencil, but he later lost the license. In a world of laptops and tablets, it may be easy to forget that your "old school" school supplies are actually pretty advanced pieces of technology.

Learn about the rich history behind the original stationary crew, and you might look at your pencil case a little differently. Sure it might not look like technology, but the pencil of today has come a long away from its ancient ancestor: the stylus.

The stylus was a tiny lead rod the Romans used to scratch marks on papyrus the first paper until we learned that lead is super toxic.

The next step was to cover these sticks of brittle graphite with sturdy wood casings. The Germans were the first do this and invented the modern pencil in But in a British silversmith named Sampson Mordan patented the first mechanical pencil — changing the game for writing utensils.