Ink eraser

Ink, however, readily penetrates the fibers of most papers and is therefore more difficult to extract by mechanical action.

Metal erasers were essentially small knives, used to shave away or scrape off ink from a writing surface.

This was the downfall of Metropolitan Life office boy George Millet, who fell on an ink eraser kept in his breast pocket while trying to evade the kisses of six steno girls on his 15th birthday.

The molecules are disrupted by sulfite or hydroxide ions binding to the central carbon atoms of the dye.

For this reason, eradicators usually include a permanent blue felt tip that allows the user to write in the erased area.