Ink eraser

An ink eraser is an instrument used to remove ink from a writing surface. There are two types: a traditional metal ink eraser, in which the ink is literally scraped off the surface, and the chemically imbibed ink eradicator, in which a vinyl eraser is imbibed with a substance that chemically reacts with the ink to remove it.

Metal ink erasers were generally used before chemically imbibed ink erasers were introduced and when most writing was done in ink and not in pencil (or by computer). However, the erasers were essentially small knives, and by accident or on purpose could end up as unlikely weapons in a stabbing. In one instance a 15-year-old boy working in an insurance office in New York City died when, while evading women stenographers trying to give him a kiss on his birthday, he fell and his ink eraser, supplied to office employees, stabbed his chest. ["Stabbed to Death in Office Frolic," New York Times, February 16, 1909.] In another instance, stemming from a bar fight, a man stabbed another with an ink eraser. ["Bang Knocked Him Down: How Coles was Provoked to Stab Coachman Flanagan," New York Times, June 26, 1886.]

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