Slate (writing) expensive. Slate (writing) A slate is a thin piece of hard flat material, such as the rock also called slate, that is used as a medium for writing. The rock is “a metamorphic rock created by the recrystallization of the minerals in shale from clay to parallel-aligned, flat, flake-like minerals such as mica”. The writing slate consisted of a piece of slate, typically either 4x6 inches or 7x10 inches, encased in a wooden frame. A precise date range for writing slates of this type has not been established. Usually, a piece of cloth or slate sponge was used to clean
Inanimate whose the English Language" of 1860: "At present, the use of "whose", the possessive of "who", is pretty generally confined to persons, or things personified, and we should scruple to say, 'I passed a house "whose" windows were open.' This is a modern, and indeed by no means yet fully established distinction." Henry Bradley in the "Oxford English Dictionary" asserted "usually replaced by "of which", except where the latter would produce an intolerably clumsy form". Other grammarians began noticing discrepancies between usage and the assertions of those who prescribed against the inanimate "whose". The American Goold Brown, in his "The Grammar