In 1770 Edward Nairne, an English engineer, developed the very first widely used rubber eraser. An invention so many of us have relied upon to erase our graphite-based mistakes for years. A simple, yet effective, solution, but did you know that it was created by accident? How? Let’s take a look.
Before the Rubber Eraser
Before the rubber eraser was created, we were using a very different method to erase our pencil mistakes. The solution we relied upon, was breadcrumbs. Yes, apparently, bread crumbs erase graphite markings! But there were a few problems with the use of breadcrumbs as an eraser. First, you need to have fresh bread to hand, and not everyone had fresh bread readily available in the 1700’s. Secondly, the breadcrumbs eraser is far from precise. Imagine you want to erase just one letter and instead you accidentally end up erasing whole words, from multiple sentences. Finally, using breadcrumbs as an eraser can be a very messy business. Fortunately, Edward Nairne found a simple and effective solution… by accident.
The Accidental Creation
While working, Edward Nairne went to pick up some breadcrumbs to erase a mistake, but instead, he accidentally picked up something else.
Rubber was brought to Europe by the Spanish, who were fascinated by the elasticity of latex, and it was this piece of natural rubber that Nairne picked up instead of the breadcrumbs. He quickly discovered that rubber is actually very effective at cleanly wiping away graphite, and so he started selling rubber blocks as erasers in his London-based shop. The only downside to these erasers was their lack of longevity. Due to the natural rubber used to make the erasers, they tended to rot relatively quickly, making them a perishable item.
The Evolution of the Eraser
With the intention of making the rubber eraser more durable, innovative inventor Charles Goodyear created vulcanisation. Vulcanisation is a process which heats natural rubber, along with sulphur, to make the rubber harder and less sticky. This process made the eraser more durable, because it stopped it from rotting. The vulcanisation process was patented by Goodyear in 1844.
Ninety years after the rubber was first invented, Hymen Lipman attached an eraser to the end of a pencil, and went on to patent his concept. Fortunately-unfortunately, this patent was later found to be invalid and, as a result, erasers and pencil top rubbers have been created and sold in all shapes and sizes all around the globe ever since.