In 1770, English scientist Joseph Priestley said, I have seen a substance very suitable for erasing pencil writing. Throughout Europe, writing was erased by rubber particles cut into small cubes. This substance is called an eraser.
In 1770, English scientist Joseph Priestley said, I have seen a substance very suitable for erasing pencil writing. Throughout Europe, writing was erased by rubber particles cut into small cubes. This substance is called an eraser.
Edward Naime, another British engineer, is credited with inventing the eraser in 1770. Before that, people used breadcrumbs to erase handwriting. Naime said he once accidentally picked up a piece of rubber as a crumb of bread, but found it worked so well that he started making and selling erasers.
Early erasers were not convenient because raw rubber was perishable. It was not until 1839, when inventor CharlesGoodyear discovered that vulcanization improved the quality of rubber that erasers became reliable.
In 1858 a Philadelphia man obtained a patent for a pencil with an eraser attached to the end, but the eraser was later revoked because it was deemed to be "a combination of two existing items rather than a new product."
