Erasing Pencil Marks with Bread Crumbs

Before rubber erasers existed in 1770, people actually erased their pencil mistakes with moistened

bread crumbs. They would take pieces of soft bread, dampen them slightly, and roll them across

the page to lift graphite marks. This technique worked surprisingly well because the sticky

texture of wet bread grabbed onto pencil particles. Artists and writers kept bread at their

desks specifically for corrections. When British engineer Edward Nairne accidentally picked up a piece

of rubber instead of bread, he discovered it worked even better. That accidental

grab revolutionized writing forever, replacing the messy bread method with the clean pink erasers

we know today.