Changes

Slate has found use as a roofing or flooring material, for the bed of a [[snooker]] or [[billiards]] table and for writing tablets.  Slates for writing have been in use for many thousands of years and were common well into the twentieth century in many schools. Writing would be accomplished either with a coarse stick of [[chalk]] or a fine stylus made of [[graphite]].  Owing to the ease at which the slate tablets could be cleaned for re-use we get the English [[idiom]] to "start with a clean slate".

Slate has found use as a roofing or flooring material, for the bed of a [[snooker]] or [[billiards]] table and for writing tablets.  Slates for writing have been in use for many thousands of years and were common well into the twentieth century in many schools. Writing would be accomplished either with a coarse stick of [[chalk]] or a fine stylus made of [[graphite]].  Owing to the ease at which the slate tablets could be cleaned for re-use we get the English [[idiom]] to "start with a clean slate".