Some creations appear after a period of intense publicity, with immense significance. There are some inventions that begin with a simple observation that seems too trivial to be a creation but has far-reaching impacts in the future. The present-day eraser is one such creation.
As early as 1770, an English scientist, Joseph Priestley, observed that using a small piece of natural rubber, one could easily rub graphite marks off paper. While historians of materials have pointed out that natural rubber had long been in use in Central and South America prior to its discovery by Europeans, what Joseph Priestley created here was not the material itself but its most interesting use.
