The chalkboard, sometimes commonly known as a blackboard, was invented by James Pillans. He worked as a school headmaster in Edinburgh, Scotland but experts are not sure precisely when the invention was developed. In addition to not knowing when, experts don't know how Pillans came up with the idea. All that is known is that he used it to teach the subject of geography and wrote on the board with a piece of chalk. Its first use in the U.S. however is documented as 1801. An instructor at West Point Military Academy named George Baron used the device for a math class he was teaching there. The invention was significant for the educational community which previously taught students on multiple individual slates.
The invention of dust-free chalk was an important advent as some people with allergies could be greatly affected by the regular chalk. Tests of both kinds of chalk were done proving them both free of toxic materials, but regular chalk still posed the dust problem. As times have changed and technology has included many computers within the classroom, dust-free chalk became even more important. While some humans are affected by dust, all computers are affected by it. It is simply better to have dust-free chalk in rooms that contain them. This concern can be reduced if the computers are kept at a reasonable distance from chalkboards.
Something needed to be invented that could efficiently wipe away the chalk marks used on individual slates. The solution was developed by a man named J.L. Hammett. Hammett was already involved in education as the author of books concerning grammar usage. He discovered that by using a leftover piece of carpet to wipe the chalk away, the results were quite efficient by comparison to regular cloth. His discovery led to the invention of the chalkboard eraser. He simply gathered blocks of wood and nailed carpet scraps to them.
At the University of Notre Dame, "each room features multiple sliding blackboards," according to Millennialmarketing.com. While chalkboards, dust-free chalk and erasers provide all that an educator might need, sliding blackboards were an efficient way to create more writing space for teachers. An additional benefit they provided was saving space when not in use and saving time when teachers wanted to quickly move to another topic without erasing all that they had written.