A few weeks ago Brittany told us about the strange, yet lazy creature called the Sloth!

Click on the link below to hear what she had to say!

britt2_sloth

Pencil Sharpeners exist as electrical and hand powered forms. Before sharpeners were invented they sharpened pencils with a knife. Pencil sharpeners make this job easier and make the pencil neater. Some pencils such as the carpenters pencil still have to be sharpened with a knife because of the flat shape they have, but a sharpener has been invented for it. The first manual pencil sharpener were invented by Therry des Estwaux in 1828. John Lee Love invented the ‘portable’ sharpener that was originally made for artists. About.com claims that Raymond Loewy designed the first electric sharpener in the late 1940’s. Now they come in a wide range of shapes, colours and sizes. Most sharpeners come with a case around them, then just remove the case to empty and replace.  

I got my Information from Wikipedia.

Click on the link below to hear Holly sharpen our knowledge on the pencil sharpener!  Well read Holly!

holly2_sharpeners

Before the rubber eraser was invented they would use tablets of wax to erase charcoal marks from paper. Some people believe that they would also use white bread without the crusts to help the tablets of wax.

In 1770 Edward Nairne an English Engineer was believed to invent the first Eraser. According to what had been said he went to pick up some bread crumbs to erase something and he picked up some rubber. After he found out that the rubber worked well he sold it for 3 Shilling per half inch cube.

In 1839 the Inventor Charles Goodyear discovered a process that would stop the rubber from going bad over time. After that people started to more commonly use that process from Charles Goodyear.

In 1858 Hymen Lipman from the U.S.A put in for patent in for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil but latter it was invalidated because he put together two old ideas not one new one.  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eraser

Click on the link below to hear Becca ERASE our previous ideas about the ERASER!

Becca’s 2nd Goss

In 1957, two Americans called Richard Knerr and Arthur K. Melin invented a plastic round hula hoop based on an Australian manufactured wooden ring. It was made in a number of colours from the rainbow to just plain colours and was a huge success.

It all started in 1000 BC when Egyptian children played with large hoops made of dried grape vines. They hit it on the ground with a stick or put it on a waist and spun it.

Throughout history, wooden hoops were played with. In the fourteenth century, they were as popular with adults as with children.

The word hula was added when British sailors went to Hawaii in the 1800s and noticed how similar it was when people did hula dancing and then saw people doing hooping.
Interesting facts about hooping
• Truckloads of hoops were hijacked on their way to stores by crazed consumers.
• In Wham-O sold more than 100 million Hula Hoop’s in the first twelve months on the market, and even that wasn’t enough to meet the demand.
• In Japan, nervous officials banned the toy’s use in public for fear of mass impropriety meaning it was rude and disrespectful
• Wham-O founders Arthur Melin and Richard Knerr spotted a bamboo exercise toy on a trip to Australia.
• The longest time of hula hooping is 72 hours by Kym Coberly in 1984
• The most hoops spun was 105 by Jin Linlin in 2007
http://www.recordholders.org/en/list/hulahoop.html
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/hulahoop.htm

Click on the link below to hear Tom spin us some stories about hula hoops!

Tom J’s 2nd Goss