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Back-to-School Inventions

It's that time of the year when kids sulk and parents rejoice – it's back to school time!

Although the warm, late summer nights are coming to an end, there is an upside to back to school: shopping! In preparation of new classmates and new lessons, new school gear is certainly in order. We at InventHelp® fondly remember picking out great new school clothes and, of course, the latest school supplies.

In honor of back-to-school excitement, InventHelp® presents the invention stories of crayons and erasers, both must-haves for a new school year.

Invention of Crayons

For youngsters in particular, a vast selection of crayons ensures that any school artwork is worthy of prime refrigerator space.

Invented by cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith, crayons originally were produced in only eight colors: black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow and green.

After experimenting with materials, the cousins figured out a way to add safe, colored pigments to paraffin wax. The first box of crayons made its debut in 1903 and sold for 5 cents.

Today there are hundreds of crayon colors, as well as crayons that glow in the dark, sparkle with glitter, and even change colors. The creative possibilities from the invention of crayons are endless!

Eraser Invention

Before rubber became popular in Europe, the first erasers were actually edible! People used pieces of bread to remove pencil marks because a better option was not available.

Rubber was actually named because of its ability to rub pencil marks off paper. For many years, rubber and pencils remained separate, until a Philadelphia inventor came up with a new eraser invention.

Hyman Lipman patented a pencil with a groove in the tip, into which an eraser was glued. Companies started to manufacture the pencil/eraser combo, and a fight ensued over the intellectual property rights of the concept.

The battle over the invention of the eraser made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the pencil/eraser combination could not be patented. Their reasoning was that combining a pencil with an eraser did not change the functionality of either. The decision opened the way for many companies to start producing pencils with erasers.

Now, a #2 pencil sits in the desks of school children everywhere, just waiting to be used on a standardized test!

While some things have certainly changed since we at InventHelp were children, we can still appreciate the excitement and nervous anticipation of a new school term. We hope that all the students heading back to the classrooms have an enjoyable and inventive year!

Back to Articles for Inventors  |  Back to September 2007 Newsletter

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