THINKER'S ALMANAC - March 30

Before the invention of the pencil eraser, what did people use to erase errors?

Subject:  Invention - Eraser-tipped Pencil

Event: Hyman L. Lipman patents pencil with eraser, 1858

 

The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead. -Robert Breault

On this day in 1858, a Philadelphia stationer named Hyman L. Lipman patented the first eraser-tipped pencil.  This is one invention that has stood the test of time and is also one of the best metaphors there is to remind us that everyone makes mistakes and that no human is faultless.

                                                                            Image by Uwe Baumann from Pixabay 

One common misnomer about pencils is that they contain “lead.” In reality, pencils contain a mineral called graphite.  Legend has it that in the 16th century a shiny black substance was discovered in England’s Lake District under a fallen tree.  The substance was first used by local shepherds to mark their sheep. Because the black material resembled lead, it was called plumbago (from the Latin word for lead, plumbus — the same root that gave us the word “plumber,” someone who works with lead pipes).

A pencil shortage in 18th-century France resulted in the invention of another well-known writing implement.  While at war with England in 1794, Revolutionary France could not access the graphite needed to make pencils.  An engineer named Nicolas-Jacques Conte improvised, combining low-quality graphite with wet clay. Conte then molded the substance into rods and baked it.  This process produced “Crayons Conte” or what we know today as chalk.

Before he lived at Walden Pond, the American writer Henry David Thoreau made a significant contribution to the pencil’s evolution.  After graduating from Harvard College, Thoreau went to work at his family’s pencil-making business. Working with material from a New Hampshire graphite deposit, Thoreau developed his own process for making pencils.  He numbered his pencils from the softest to the hardest using a numbering system from 1 to 4. The No. 2 was the Goldilocks of pencils — not so soft that is smudged easily and not so hard that it breaks easily.

The origin of the most common color for pencils is another story.  Pencils were commonly painted in any number of colors, but in 1889, at the World’s Fair in Paris, a Czech manufacturer Hardtmuth debuted a yellow pencil.  Supposedly made of the finest graphite deposits, the pencil was named Koh-I-Noor, after one of the world’s largest diamonds. The distinct yellow of the Koh-I-Noor became the industry standard for quality, and soon other manufacturers began painting their pencils yellow.

The final key element in the evolution of the pencil came in the 1770s when British polymath Joseph Priestley discovered that a gum harvested from South American trees was effective for rubbing out pencil marks — appropriately he called this substance “rubber.”  Prior to Priestley’s discovery, the most common erasers used were lumps of old bread.

Priestley was also the author of an influential textbook called The Rudiments of English Grammar which was published in 1761 (1).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: Before pencils had erasers, what was commonly used to erase pencil marks? What well-known American writer contributed to the evolution of the pencil?

Challenge - Ordinary Objects, Extraordinary History: What are some examples of inventions, like the pencil, that are everyday ordinary objects?  Brainstorm a list of some ordinary objects that you encounter every day.  Select one of these objects and do some research on its origin. Write a report providing details about the object’s origin and history.  

Sources:

1-”Trace The Remarkable History Of The Humble Pencil.”  All Things Considered.  NPR.org 11 Oct. 2016.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - March 13

Why did a public service announcement featuring an egg frying in a pan become one of the most successful PSAs of all time?

Subject:  Analogies - SAT

Event:  Analogies removed from the SAT, 2005

In 2005, the College Board removed analogy questions from the SAT.  These problems tested students’ ability to recognize vocabulary and make logical comparisons.  

For example, 

STORY : FABLE :: POEM : _______ 

(A. POET, B. NOVEL, C. RHYME, D. SONNET).  

Using analogical thinking, a student would see the relationship:  a FABLE is a type of STORY, and a SONNET is a type of POEM.

Writing in The New York Times on this day in 2005, Adam Cohen wrote an obituary of sorts for the SAT analogy, mourning its loss:

Intentionally misleading comparisons are becoming the dominant mode of public discourse.  The ability to tell true analogies from false ones has never been more important. (1)

Although analogies may no longer be a test item on the SAT, they remain a key strategy for thinkers and writers, both for clarifying their own thinking and for communicating their thinking to others.

An analogy uses comparison and ratio to reason to some conclusion.  In this 

sense, an analogy is less figurative than a metaphor or a simile, but a bit more logical.

For example, in an essay about nail-biting, the writer Suzannah Showler uses an analogy to show her readers that we should not go to extremes by labeling all nail-biters as obsessive-compulsives:

But just as the specter of hoarding shouldn’t rule out collecting as a hobby, not every nibbled nail should be judged by the end-stage diagnosis.

In another example, Joseph Addison uses an analogy to describe the benefits of reading:

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.  As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated; by the other, virtue -- which is the health of the mind -- is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed. 

Notice how Addison’s explanation echoes an almost mathematical relationship:  

Reading : Mind :: Exercise : Body

One of the most successful public service announcements ever produced employed a visual analogy comparing drug abuse to a fried egg.  The PSA was produced by the Ad Council in 1987. It featured the simple image of a single egg in a frying pan along with a concise message of just 15 words:  “This is your brain. This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?”

                                                                        Image by Alexa from Pixabay 

Analogies are an excellent way to teach your reader and to avoid the curse of knowledge (see THINKER’S ALMANAC - January 2).  Look at your topic from your audience’s point of view.  Think about what they know and what they don’t know.  Like a teacher who tries to build a bridge between a student’s prior knowledge and a new concept, try to arrange an analogy that helps the reader to see the unknown through the lens of the known.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  In the 1987 anti-drug PSA, what image represented the brain and what other image represented drugs? How do analogies help a writer to overcome the Curse of Knowledge?

Challenge - The Annals of Analogy:  What is an example of an excellent analogy that you have seen used by a great thinker or writer?  Identify the analogy, and explain why you think it works.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

March 13, 2012:  On this day The New York Times announced that the Encyclopedia Britannica would no longer produce its print edition. First published in 1768, The Britannica became the most recognized and authoritative reference work every published in English.  The last print edition, produced in 2010, consisted of 32 volumes and weighed 129 pounds.  It sold for $1,395.

Sources:

1-Cohen, Adam. “An SAT Without Analogies Is Like: (A) A Confused Citizenry…” The New York Times 13 March 2005.