Pencil Meets Eraser

March 30, 1858 - It was on this day that a Philadelphian named Hymen Lipman filed a patent for a pencil with an attached eraser. This was a huge breakthrough, as up until then the pencil and eraser only appeared separately.

4 years later he sold the patent for $100,000 to a man named Joseph Reckendorfer. Reckendorfer then sued the pencil giant, Faber, for infringement. Unfortunately for Reckendorfer, the Supreme Court ruled that the patent was invalid since it was only a combination of two things that already existed with no new purpose.