Edward Nairne

Edward Nairne (* 1726 in Sandwich, England, † September 1, 1806 in London) was an optician, instrument maker and inventor of the eraser.

As of 1741, he went to the optician Matthew Loft in the teaching and founded after his death in 1748 his own business for optical and mathematical instruments in 20 Cornhill, London. In 1774 he formed a partnership with Thomas Blunt, who had been trained by him. Blunt opened his own business in 1793 in the immediate vicinity in 22 Cornhill.

Edward Nairne patented some electrical devices, such as an electrostatic generator. This was planned for medical use and has been touted for a variety of diseases.

Using wire explosions, he demonstrated experimentally that electric current in a circuit of series circuits is the same everywhere. He also built a portable suitcase microscope.

To 1758, he created sets of magnets and telescopes for Benjamin Franklin. In its advocacy Nairne was selected after the fire of Harvard College from 1764 as one of the mechanics who should replace the equipment.

In 1770 he discovered that can rub out pencil marks with rubber. He had accidentally reached out for it, instead of the usual bread for erasing lumps. He gave him the name " Rubber" and sold it to the astonishingly high price of 3 shillings. The London instrument maker and chemist Joseph Priestley makes the rubber in the same year public, which is why you also occasionally calls him an inventor.

In the early 1770s, he designed the first successful marine barometer, in which he had narrowed the glass tube below the scale.

In 1772, he constructed according to the specifications of Joseph Priestley an electrical machine.

1776, he became a member of the Royal Society, 1800 Member of the Royal Institution.

The Hamburg businessman and Senator Nicholas Anton Johann churchyard had had made numerous devices to its physical Cabinet with Edward Nairne.