This is my summary of the inventions I learned about in lessons seventy-six through seventy-nine. In lesson seventy-six, I learned about the invention of salt and pepper shakers. Salt and pepper are two ancient spices you’re probably familiar with. Salt can be used to preserve food, so it was very valuable before refrigeration was invented. Pepper, too, was a valuable and expensive luxury that only the richest could enjoy.

John Mason invented salt and pepper shakers in 1858. Before shakers, salt and pepper were served in bowls. You could put it onto your food using a spoon- or your fingers, which aren’t always clean. Salt and pepper shakers have small holes in the lid that control how much seasoning comes out, meaning you don’t have to touch all the spice to get the right amount.

In lesson seventy-seven, I studied the invention of the Mason jar. Over the years, many methods for preserving food have been used, including pickling and canning. John Mason invented and patented the Mason jar around the same time he patented the salt and pepper shakers. The Mason jar was mostly intended for use in canning- a method of food preservation that was becoming more common.

Mason jars are glass jars that have two layers of lids: a metal disk, and a screw-top that keeps it in place. This makes the canning process much safer, since you no longer need wax to seal the lid on during canning. Mason jars make it possible to store food for a long time.

In lesson seventy-eight, I learned about the invention of the pencil eraser. Up until the late 1700’s, bread was used to erase pencil mistakes. Then, it was discovered by accident that rubber could erase better, and that’s how rubber got its name.

For a while, squares of rubber were sold as erasers. Then, in 1858, Hymen Lipman combined two existing inventions- the pencil and the eraser- to invent the pencil eraser. The pencil eraser is an extremely useful tool that allows you to make a writing mistake without having to start all over.

Last of all, lesson seventy-nine was about the invention of the twine binder. The mechanical reaper, invented by Cyrus McCormick, improved the speed of wheat harvesting, but it didn’t bind the wheat. This meant the wheat would often go bad before all of it could be bound. However, in 1858, John Appleby invented the twine binder to solve this problem. The twine binder is attached to a reaper, and it ties the sheaves of wheat as they’re pushed off the reaper. This allowed all of the wheat to be bundled as it was cut, and saved lots of time.