Ken smirked and said, ” If I had a time machine, I would go back in time to thank the person who invented the eraser. But who should I thank because I do not even know the person who invented it”.

“Hey! wouldn’t it be interesting to find out who invented the eraser, to know how he came up with the idea and how erasers actually erase out things.”,  Myra said inquisitively.

Ken thought that this was the first smart thing Myra said since morning and agreed that this would be really interesting to find out.

That afternoon both of them went to the library to scout for the answers. Soon they found all their answers in “The Great Book of Inventions”. The person that they were looking for was an Englishman named Edward Naime, who accidentally invented the eraser. Before the rubber eraser was discovered  people used white bread to erase the pencil marks. Eww!. One day while working Naime accidentally picked up a chunk of rubber  instead of bread to erase. He noticed that the  rubber erased much better than the bread. Soon enough  Naime started selling erasers. But there was one problem. Rubber like bread would go bad over a period of time. They were perishable. Much later a person called Charles Goodyear, invented the process of vulcanization (for converting rubber into more durable materials) that made rubber stable and made it a household name.

So its the rubber in the erasers that clears pencil marks. It  is super simple. Rubber erasers are made up of very tiny particles that are extremely sticky. And the pencil marks you see on the paper are actually tiny graphite particles. So when the eraser is rubbed over pencil marks the graphite particles stick up to the eraser particles and leave the paper surface !!

Ken got up from his chair and said smilingly,” If I had the time machine now I would know exactly whom to thank for inventing the rubbing tool.”

Did you know?
Erasers have evolved over years from being just a plain chunk to being colorful, designed and shaped like animals or like toys or cartoons, and many other delightful shapes. Enjoy watching this video of beautiful Japanese erasers: