Eraser: The frenemy of pencils born out of a mistake at the lab  

Erasers been a great pal of yours during the early years of your school life, isn’t it? These funky and fancy stationery items not only come in variant shades, shapes, and sizes but also attractive fragrances. Ever wondered how they came into being? Well, that’s quite a story in itself. 

The pre-eraser era: A look back 
Long before erasers came into being, humans have been trying to erase marks from paper. For instance, ancient Europeans used wax tablets to remove lead and charcoal markings, while native Americans preferred rough stones such as pumice and sandstone to get rid of errors from parchment or papyrus written in ink. However, the most fascinating material that was used in place of eraser has to be bread crumbs. This process was mainly preferred by Asians, especially the Japanese people.  

Rubber makes entry into Europe 
Not many know but rubber, the key of erasers, was born in ancient Mexico and Central America, where tribes such as the Mayas, Olmecs and Aztecs harvested latex from rubber trees. But as soon as they realised that the natural substance is very brittle, they mixed it with the juice squeezed out of morning glory vines. Fortunately, the mixture proved to be useful, as it was both durable and water resistant. Thus, rubber was introduced to the world. However, back then, people used it to make shoes, bouncing play balls and also as an adhesive.   

When European explorers travelled to the Central Americas, they were fascinated by rubber, as they hadn’t seen anything like it before. Needless to say, when they returned, they carried a significant amount with them. The first European to do so was a French scientist named Charles Marie de la Condamine. In 1736, he started experimenting with rubber in his lab at the Paris-based Institute de France. All he intended was to find out more about this exotic natural substance called rubber. Condamine was so fascinated that he even sent rubber samples to his friends and peers across the continent.  

Eraser is accidentally born 
Now, fast forward to 1770. An English engineer named Edward Nairne, who was few of the lucky ones to have received rubber from Condamine, was working late at his lab one night when he mistakenly picked up rubber instead of crustless bread lump to remove a part of his writing from a piece of paper. It didn’t take long for him to discover the erasing properties of rubber. Nairne even went on to sell natural rubber erasers (or gum elastic/ caoutchouc) to academic circles for a whooping price of three shillings per half an inch cube.  

In fact, Nairne’s friend Sir Joseph Priestly, the distinguished scientist who discovered oxygen, even wrote the marketing slogan of eraser at Nairne’s request. It read, “A substance excellently adapted to the purpose of wiping from paper the mark of black lead pencil. It is sold by Mr. Nairne, Mathematical Instrument-Maker, opposite the Royal Exchange (in London).” What’s interesting is that, years before Nairne, the French had been using rubber for rubbing lead marks on paper and called it “peaux de negres.”  

Vulcanisation improves the quality of eraser 
As people know, natural rubber can easily rot away. It even smells bad, making it hard to work with it. This is why vulcanisation was developed by American scientist Charles Goodyear in 1839. It is a process by which natural rubber is hardened using heat and sulphur, giving it the right consistency and making it strong and durable. With better quality and vulcanised rubber, erasers became ubiquitous.  

Another few years down the line, in 1858, a Philadelphia-based man named Hyman Lipman came up with the idea of attaching an eraser at the end of a pencil. In fact, it was him who also coined the term ‘eraser’ to distinguish it from rubber. He derived it from the verb “erase.” However, good quality erasers are not made today from synthetic rubber but vinyl or gum-like materials.