The History Behind Your Classroom Essentials Infographic
Teaching is a profession that revolves around stationery. From drawing pictures, to paper mache and colourful collages, teachers know all too well how important stationery essentials can be in the classroom.
Your stationery drawer is much more interesting than you might think, that’s why GLS have created a fun infographic on the facts behind your everyday items! Have you ever wondered how your stationery came to exist? This is something you’ll want to share with your students…
For example:
- Staplers - George MgGill from the USA is credited with the stapler, selling his design in 1869. But, the earliest stapler dates back to the 18th century. When King Louis XV of France used his stapler, each staple was inscribed with the insignia of the royal court!
- Gel pens - To find the perfect gel pen ink, more than a thousand ingredients were tried by four technicians in Japan until one savvy team member tried xanthan gum and it worked!
- Sharpeners – We’re a long way from using knives as sharpeners. This is all down to two Frenchmen who decided enough was enough and created the sharpener. The New York City municipal government were buying mechanical pencil sharpeners as early as 1853 at around 1.5 dollars (the equivalent of £32 today!)
- Erasers – Before the eraser was invented, we used crustless bread to remove pencil marks. The eraser was invented accidently when English engineer Edward Nairne decided to use a piece of rubber instead of breadcrumbs when drawing in 1770.
See also:
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