You can use these tidbits of knowledge to amaze your friends!)

Factoid #1: A lot of erasers are made by pencils manufacturers! That makes sense, since we think of the eraser as a regular component of the everyday pencil. But pencils didn't always have erasers. The first patent for attaching an eraser to a pencil was issued in 1858 to a man from Philadelphia named Hyman Lipman. And even today in Europe, most pencils are sold without erasers!

Factoid #2: Erasers weren't always called erasers! The item was originally referred to as a "rubber," because the tree resin it was made of "rubbed out" marks made by a pencil. In Great Britain, the eraser is still called a "rubber!"

Factoid #3: To eraser manufacturers, those little erasers on the ends of pencils aren't called "erasers" at all. They call them "plugs!"

Factoid #4: More and more of today's erasers are made from something other than rubber! While some of the "pink" erasers you find on pencils are made from synthetic rubber blended with pumice (a grit that enhances its ability to erase), an increasing number of erasers are made from vinyl. Vinyl is a type of durable, flexible plastic.