15 April: Rubber Eraser Day

Rubber Eraser Day is the anniversary of the day when Joseph Priestley first wrote about erasers in a footnote in 1770: "I have seen 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."

1. The material rubber is named after the eraser, not the other way round. Erasers became known as rubbers because of the rubbing motion required to use them, and they then gave their name to the material early erasers were made from, caoutchouc.
2. The scientist Joseph Priestley, best known for discovering Oxygen, was one of the first people to use this material as an eraser in the 1700s. In fact, he is said to have coined the word “eraser” in the first place. However, since Edward Nairne was already selling them, he doesn't get the credit for discovering them.
3. So what did people use to erase their mistakes before rubber erasers came along? Bread, which had been moistened and rolled into a ball; or wax, or stones.
4. Even so, rubber erasers didn't catch on at first because rubber is perishable. Once Charles Goodyear discovered how to vulcanise the stuff and make it last longer, they became more popular.
5. How do rubber erasers work? The graphite from pencils mingles with the fibres in paper. A rubber is stickier than paper and acts like a magnet when rubbed over a graphite mark. The graphite sticks to the rubber, not the paper.
6. To make erasers more abrasive, pulverised pumice (basically volcanic ash) is added to the rubber.
7. There is a word for the little pink eraser on the end of a pencil. It's called a “plug”. The little bit of metal around it is called a “ferrule”.
8. A man named Hymen Lipman from Philadelphia was he first person to take out a patent on attaching an eraser to a pencil. However, his patent was invalidated because it was deemed to be a composite of two existing products rather than something entirely new.
9. Some artists even draw with erasers rather than with pencils. They tone their paper with charcoal first and add in the lighter tones using an eraser. This is called subtractive drawing.
10. Petra Engels from Germany holds the Guinness World Record for collecting erasers. She had 19,571 in her collection when the record was set in 2006. She started collecting them when she was nine years old.

My Books 

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The Ultraheroes series

Several new groups of superheroes, mostly British, living and working (mostly) in British cities like London and Birmingham. People discovering they have, and learning to live with, superpowers. Each book is complete in itself although there is some overlap of characters.

The Raiders series

A tale of two dimensions, and worm hole travel between the two. People displaced in both time and space, learning to get along and work together to find a way home while getting used to the superpowers wormhole travel gave them. A trilogy.

Golden Thread

A superhero tale with a difference. Five heroes from another dimension keep returning - whenever they return, they have a job to do and are a well-meshed team in order to do it. Until one time, something goes wrong...

Tabitha Drake series

A different kind of power - the ability to talk to dead people. Tabitha has it, and murder victims seek her out to make sure justice is done. Tabitha has this and a disastrous love life to cope with.

Short story collections

Some feature characters from the above novels, others don't. They're not all about superheroes. Some are creepy, romantic, funny.