Scraper analysis

As can be seen in the image below, a scraper is a flint tool that has been sharpened on one edge. Its purpose is generally to scrape animal hides, though a scraper can also be used to work wood, and shape bone and ivory into tools and art. Scraper is a general term, and many different types are recognized - for example, a side scraper, flake scraper, end scraper, blade scraper and others. This specimen is made out of obsidian and does not belong to any archaeological culture (it was freshly made a week ago). First tools, including scrapers, appeared approximately 2.6 million years ago.

Another type of scraper is a so-called web-scraper, as shown below. This is a very recent introduction to humanity's toolset - it barely covers a couple of dozen years if not less. Its purpose is to scrape websites for data and save the extracted data as needed. It can be argued that similar to the first type, its purpose is to shape something as well - by extracting desired data and leaving undesired data behind, a web-scraper assists in creating a new piece of information. However, unlike the first type, web-scrapers are non-destructive. While a flake scraper modifies the raw material, a web-scraper does not. All the data stays in the Internet no matter how much one scrapes it.

require "mechanize"

url = 'http://www.archaeologywordsmith.com/lookup.php?category=&where=headword&terms=Scraper'
fp = File.new("scraper_list.txt", "w")

agent = Mechanize.new

html = agent.get(url).body

html_doc = Nokogiri::HTML(html)

fp.write("Types of scrapers:\n\n")

list = html_doc.xpath("//dt[@class='results']")
list.each { |i| fp.write(i.text + "\n") }