Fact of the Day: 19/11/2021

While you are doing your homework, you make a mistake on the paper. You flip over your pencil, erase the mistake, and carry on. The event seems like such a simple thing, right? Believe it or not, there was a time when there was no eraser on a pencil. If you wrote something, it was permanent—there was no eraser to quickly remove it. Who came up with the idea of an eraser on a pencil? The genius stationer Hymen Lipman is to credit for its invention, but not its marketing . Knowing an eraser on a pencil would be a big hit, Joseph Reckendorfer, an entrepreneur, patented the eraser-behind-the-pencil invention. Unfortunately, the patent was not valid, so many companies were able to copy the design without paying any money. Still, despite its somewhat controversial history, the eraser on a pencil has come to revolutionize our world in a subtle, yet powerful way. Next time you make a mistake on your homework and you use your pencil eraser to fix it, you have Lipman to thank for improving your grade. 

Reference(s): https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/who-made-that-built-in-eraser.html

Fact Author: Durga I.

Fact Editor: Ace 

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