Before the discovery of erasers, wet bread crumbs were used widely for erasing. Imagine going to school with a packet of wet bread-crumbs. It would be funny.
Edward Nairne, a British engineer once made a mistake while writing. He accidentally took a piece of rubber instead of bread crumbs to erase it and guess what? Rubber proved to be a better eraser. Thanks to Nairne’s mistake our school life has become easier. Every time you rub out your mistakes without a trace, just remember that your eraser was an accidental discovery.
Joseph Priestley was the first one to discover the erasing properties of rubber, but Edward Nairne was the first to develop and market it.
An eraser gets its common name ‘rubber’ from the rubbing action. It works chemically, pretty much like a sticky magnet. When it is rubbed over the writing, the graphite particles stick to the rubber, making erasing possible.
Picture Credit : Google