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

A clap is a sound that is made when two flat surfaces are put together, such as our hands. There has been a man who did a whole performs clapping, Steve Reich. It is impossible to say when clapping started, but it has been around since at least the Middle Ages.  Some people believe drums may have inspired clapping, when others believe it is a baby instinct to clap. As they do it when there first learn to respond to light and sound. In a lot of cultures clapping is not used for praise, for example in Tibet clapping is used to shoo away evil spirits.  Other cultures stomp their feet for praise instead of clapping.

http://ask.yahoo.com/20050804.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapping

becca_clapping.mp3