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A slate is a thin piece of hard flat material, historically slate stone, which is used as a medium for writing on. Writing on a slate is impermanent and easily erased, and the same slate is then reused.
A slate is a thin piece of hard flat material, historically slate stone, which is used as a medium for writing on. Writing on a slate is impermanent and easily erased, and the same slate is then reused.
Usage
The writing slate consisted of a piece of slate, typically either 4x6 inches or 7x10 inches, encased in a wooden frame. Split slate was prepared by scraping with a steel edge, grinding with a flat stone and, finally, polishing with a mix of slate powder in water. Pencils were of a softer stone, such asshale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...
, chalk or soapstone. In 1853 Charles Goodyear patented a compound of hard-vulcanised rubber with powdered porcelain
Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...
, from which to make white pencils for writing on slates.
Usually, a piece of cloth or slate sponge, sometimes attached with a string to the bottom of the writing slate, was used to erase it for reuse.
History
The exact origins of the writing slate remain unclear. References to its use can be found in the fourteenth century and evidence suggests that it was used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The central time period for the writing slate, however, "appears to begin in the later eighteenth century, when developments in sea and land transport permitted the gradual expansion of slate quarrying inWales
Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
and the growth of a substantial slate workshop industry."
By the nineteenth century, writing slates were used around the world in nearly every school and were a central part of the slate industry. At the dawn of the twentieth century, writing slates were the primary tool in the classroom for students. In the 1930s (or later) writing slates began to be replaced by more modern methods. However, writing slates did not become totally obsolete; they are still made in the twenty-first century, though in small quantities.
The writing slate was sometimes used by industry workers to track goods and by sailors to calculate their geographical location at sea. Sometimes multiple pieces of slate were bound together into a "book" and horizontal lines were etched onto the slate surface as a guide for neat handwriting.Davies, 63-64.
See also
*Clay tablet
In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian language, Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age.
Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay t ...
* Blackboard
References
Sources
* *{{Cite book , title=Standard Sizes of Blackboard Slate , publisher=U.S. Department of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards , year=1966 Writing media Slate Educational devices