1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:09,160 Speaker 1: The Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to this Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:18,479 Speaker 1: show for those interested in the big and small moments 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:24,200 Speaker 1: of history. I'm Gabelusier, and today we're celebrating National Pencil 5 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:27,600 Speaker 1: Day by looking at the story of Hymen Lippman, the 6 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:38,080 Speaker 1: first person to combine a pencil with an eraser. The 7 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:43,519 Speaker 1: day was March thirtieth, eighteen fifty eight. Jamaican born inventor 8 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:47,320 Speaker 1: Himan Lippman registered the first patent for a pencil with 9 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:51,240 Speaker 1: a built in a racer. Lippman described his invention as 10 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:55,280 Speaker 1: a quote combination of lead and India rubber or other 11 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 1: erasing substance embedded in the holder of a drawing pencil. 12 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:04,600 Speaker 1: That sounds straightforward enough, but Lippman's design was actually quite 13 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: different from the erasers found on modern pencils. Instead of 14 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:11,960 Speaker 1: being attached to one end by a metal band, Lippman's 15 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:15,440 Speaker 1: eraser was enclosed within the body of the pencil, just 16 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:18,920 Speaker 1: like the lead. That way, you could sharpen one end 17 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:21,640 Speaker 1: to expose the pencil lead and the other end to 18 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:26,280 Speaker 1: expose the eraser. As you might imagine, that setup resulted 19 00:01:26,319 --> 00:01:29,479 Speaker 1: in a rather slim eraser, sort of like the ones 20 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: you see on mechanical pencils today. It still got the 21 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,840 Speaker 1: job done, though, enabling scribblers of all types to edit 22 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:40,440 Speaker 1: and revise on the fly just by flipping over their pencil. 23 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:46,120 Speaker 1: Himan L. Lippman was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on March twentieth, 24 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 1: eighteen seventeen. When he was about twelve years old, he 25 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 1: immigrated to the United States with his parents, both of 26 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:58,120 Speaker 1: whom were English. The family eventually settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 27 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:02,080 Speaker 1: where Lippman developed an interest in stationery and book binding. 28 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:05,360 Speaker 1: In eighteen forty, he took over the shop of the 29 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: city's leading stationer, Samuel M. Stewart. In addition to binding 30 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:14,480 Speaker 1: books and selling office supplies, Lippmann also became America's first 31 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:20,280 Speaker 1: envelope manufacturer. He didn't just produce envelopes either, He actually 32 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:23,640 Speaker 1: improved the base design by adding adhesive to the back 33 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:27,440 Speaker 1: flap so it could be sealed more easily. Later in life, 34 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:31,520 Speaker 1: Lippmann also made several other novel additions to nineteenth century 35 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:35,520 Speaker 1: office supplies. For example, he invented a method for binding 36 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: papers that was sort of like the forerunner of the stapler, 37 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:42,359 Speaker 1: and in eighteen seventy three, he became the first person 38 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 1: in the United States to produce and sell blank postcards. 39 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:50,400 Speaker 1: That product became so ubiquitous that rather than being called 40 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: a postcard, it was widely known as a Lippman card instead. 41 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:59,120 Speaker 1: Still any way you slice it, Lippman's biggest claim to 42 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:02,680 Speaker 1: fame was the patent he submitted in early eighteen fifty eight. 43 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:06,640 Speaker 1: His combination lead pencil and a racer was in good 44 00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:10,200 Speaker 1: company that year, joining the ranks of other newly patented 45 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:14,360 Speaker 1: products such as the can opener and the ironing board. However, 46 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:19,000 Speaker 1: Lippmann's invention was far more versatile than your average household gadget. 47 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:22,160 Speaker 1: The built in eraser could be used to correct mistakes 48 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:24,560 Speaker 1: and make edits to a piece of writing, but it 49 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:30,080 Speaker 1: was especially useful for quote making, mathematical, architectural, and many 50 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: other kinds of drawings in which the lines are very 51 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:35,760 Speaker 1: near each other, as it may be sharpened to a 52 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: point to erase any marks between the lines. Lippman's built 53 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:44,080 Speaker 1: in a raser functioned the same way as any other. 54 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: When rubbed across a pencil mark, it would loosen the 55 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: particles on the surface of the paper. Then the sticky 56 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 1: rubber in the eraser would grab and hold onto those particles, 57 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 1: while leaving the fibers of the paper more or less intact. Also, 58 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:01,640 Speaker 1: it's worth noting that when you erase a pencil mark, 59 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:06,120 Speaker 1: you're actually removing particles of graphite, not pencil lead. The 60 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:10,000 Speaker 1: confusion stems from the fact that when graphite was originally discovered, 61 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: people mistakenly thought it was a form of lead and 62 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,919 Speaker 1: named it accordingly. In seventeen eighty nine, the substance was 63 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:20,640 Speaker 1: finally renamed graphite from the Greek word forward to write. 64 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:24,040 Speaker 1: But that still hasn't stopped people from calling it pencil lead. 65 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: Then it probably never will. In any case, humans have 66 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:30,920 Speaker 1: sought ways to correct errors in their writing for as 67 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:34,000 Speaker 1: long as writing has existed, and for a long time, 68 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:37,240 Speaker 1: balled up pieces of bread were the go to method 69 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:41,120 Speaker 1: for erasing pencil marks. It may sound strange, but some 70 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:45,000 Speaker 1: artists still use bread to lighten marks made with pastels 71 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:49,520 Speaker 1: or charcoal. That finally began to change in seventeen seventy 72 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:53,800 Speaker 1: when English chemist Joseph Priestley realized that the vegetable gum 73 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:57,520 Speaker 1: produced by a certain South American tree could remove pencil 74 00:04:57,560 --> 00:05:01,840 Speaker 1: marks more effectively than bread. He named the substance rubber 75 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 1: because erasing graphite required a rubbing motion, though of course 76 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:08,800 Speaker 1: there are all sorts of uses for rubber that don't 77 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:14,200 Speaker 1: involve rubbing. Not long after Priestly's breakthrough, an English engineer 78 00:05:14,279 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: named Edward Nairne became the first to sell natural rubber erasers. 79 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:22,479 Speaker 1: They weren't attached to pencils, though, and were instead a 80 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:25,800 Speaker 1: standalone product, which he sold at the high price of 81 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:30,680 Speaker 1: three shillings per half inch cube. Nearly a century later, 82 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:35,080 Speaker 1: Hymen Lippmann finally brought it all together with his landmark patent. 83 00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:38,440 Speaker 1: He made a fortune off his creation, but not in 84 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:41,839 Speaker 1: the way you might expect. Rather than producing the pencil 85 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:46,360 Speaker 1: eraser combos himself, Lippman sold his patent to an entrepreneur 86 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:51,200 Speaker 1: named Joseph Reckendorfer in eighteen sixty two. He made one 87 00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:55,160 Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars from the deal, the equivalent of about 88 00:05:55,279 --> 00:06:00,400 Speaker 1: three million dollars today. Reckendorfer clearly expected to make a 89 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 1: great deal more money off the invention, and if things 90 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:08,080 Speaker 1: had continued as they were, he probably would have. Unfortunately 91 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:12,520 Speaker 1: for him, the aw Faber Pencil Company eventually sued to 92 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:15,920 Speaker 1: have his patent overturned. The case went all the way 93 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:19,880 Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court, which ultimately declared the patent invalid 94 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:24,400 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy five. According to the ruling, Lippmann hadn't 95 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 1: really invented anything, as both the pencil and the eraser 96 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:31,000 Speaker 1: already existed, and while it was true he had been 97 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:34,120 Speaker 1: the first to join the two things together, the judges 98 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:38,359 Speaker 1: felt that wasn't enough to justify a patent. Once the 99 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:42,880 Speaker 1: patent was invalidated, other companies, including Faber, were free to 100 00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:46,599 Speaker 1: make pencils with built in erasers without paying any royalties. 101 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:50,600 Speaker 1: As a result, by the early twentieth century, almost every 102 00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:54,000 Speaker 1: pencil produced and sold in the US was equipped with 103 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:58,400 Speaker 1: its own eraser. That remains the case today, with most 104 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:01,200 Speaker 1: pencil erasers taking the famil your form of a rubber 105 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:04,520 Speaker 1: tip attached by a metal band known as a fair rule. 106 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 1: In that way, even though his patent was ultimately erased, 107 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:13,640 Speaker 1: Hyman's bright idea lives on. However, you might be hard 108 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:16,800 Speaker 1: pressed to find a rubber tipped pencil in many countries 109 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:21,040 Speaker 1: outside the US. For all of its convenience, the design 110 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:23,400 Speaker 1: failed to catch on in some parts of the world, 111 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:28,280 Speaker 1: including throughout Europe, where separate erasers still reigned supreme. The 112 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:31,840 Speaker 1: jury still out on whether or not eraser preferences say 113 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:35,160 Speaker 1: something about the people who wield them, but some armchair 114 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:39,480 Speaker 1: sociologists have suggested that they do. For example, a writer 115 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: for a nineteen twenty two issue of American Stationer magazine 116 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 1: theorized that quote, it may be that foreigners consider themselves 117 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:54,800 Speaker 1: less apt to make mistakes than the happy, go lucky Americans. Personally, 118 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:58,400 Speaker 1: I wouldn't go so far as ascribing a superiority complex 119 00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:01,360 Speaker 1: to all foreigners, but maybe there is some truth to 120 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:05,080 Speaker 1: the writer's idea. If nothing else, it seems plausible that 121 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:08,200 Speaker 1: having an ever present eraser might cause you to be 122 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:11,560 Speaker 1: a little more careless with your pencil, as any mistake 123 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:15,320 Speaker 1: you made could always be easily corrected. And by the 124 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:18,640 Speaker 1: same token, if your pencil doesn't have an eraser, you 125 00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:22,200 Speaker 1: might be inclined to consider each mark you make more carefully. 126 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:27,440 Speaker 1: That said, there is something comforting and even liberating about 127 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:31,040 Speaker 1: having a built in a racer. In nineteen fifteen, when 128 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:34,920 Speaker 1: the innovation was still relatively new, a reverend named Silas 129 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:38,679 Speaker 1: Delmar Conger touched upon that sense of freedom in one 130 00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:41,760 Speaker 1: of his sermons. He praised the pencil eraser as a 131 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:46,200 Speaker 1: symbol of American resilience, saying quote, to keep our past 132 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:50,240 Speaker 1: failures ever before us would cause us to continue to fail. 133 00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:54,040 Speaker 1: So take out your pencil, rub out the mark, and 134 00:08:54,240 --> 00:09:00,600 Speaker 1: start over again. I'm Gabelusier, and hopefully you now know 135 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:04,760 Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 136 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:07,720 Speaker 1: If you have a second and you're so inclined, consider 137 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:13,320 Speaker 1: following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show. 138 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:16,440 Speaker 1: And if you have any comments or suggestions, you can 139 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:19,440 Speaker 1: always send them my way by writing to this Day 140 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:23,720 Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing 141 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:26,280 Speaker 1: the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll see 142 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:30,199 Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.