Celebrate National Rubber Eraser Day everyday

You'll smile on April 15th when you celebrate this weird and wacky national holiday called National Eraser Day. Office supply geeks, eraser collectors, artists, writers, librarians, school children, and rubber eraser lovers band together every April 15th to praise this simple product that has done so much for so many.

The birth of the eraser

It's hard not to love the eraser. Since the day Nicolas Conte made the first pencil back in 1795, pencil pushers have owed a debt to the inventor of the rubber eraser. It was a stroke of luck back when Edward Naime, an English engineer, mistook a cube of rubber for the commonly used piece of bread to get rid of unwanted pencil markings and discovered a new property of rubber. Since that day erasers have been the bookkeeper's best friend and the writer's handmaiden.

Erasers are popular the world over

Few people are so perfect that they never have any use for an eraser. They're a handy, simple tool that still earn their keep even in this highly technological world. Read to learn more about the eraser, its holiday, and its celebration. From Japanese erasers to decorative art prints, posters, and cartoons the humble eraser is praised and sought after the world over--and wait until you see the collections.

Go ahead and click on the photos if you find an eraser you just gotta have and have a great National Rubber Eraser Day!

• Photo credits: 1) All images courtesy of Amazon and are sourced to Amazon product via a live link to product page unless otherwise noted. 2) Smiley Face erasers via Amazon

Everyone seems to have a preference when it comes to correcting mistakes on paper. What's yours?

What is your favorite way to erase?

The origin of National Rubber Eraser Day is shrouded in mystery. Yet it's only natural that an invention so popular and so necessary would be celebrated. There are some records that show the celebration day on the 13th but most declare April 15th to be the day. In America it's only natural to celebrate on the 15th, after all, it's IRS Tax Day. Rubber erasers are popular items leading up to April 15th.

When the rubber eraser replaced bread

The history of the eraser goes all the way back to 1770 when a fellow named Edward Nairne stumbled across the erasing properties of a rubbery property made from tree sap. Imagine his surprise when he found that he could make a pencil mark disappear? It didn't take him long to recognize its value. Soon small, cubed rubbery erasers were being made available and the little dynamos were quickly embraced by shopkeepers, record keepers, and anyone known to make a mistake when using a pencil. It was a much better solution that having to use the bread the way they'd been doing it prior to 1770.

You might think this eraser would have been known by the inventor's name such as the Naime eraser instead of the rubber eraser. Instead, the name rubber came about because of the rubbing action required in order to make the erasures possible.

How Goodyear solved the rubber eraser problem

There was a problem, though, with those first erasers that plagued the users for decades. The erasers had a tendency to rot. They didn't stay all nice and clean like the ones we use today. Rubber rots. It wasn't until 1839 when a curing process was developed by Goodyear that the rotting eraser vanished from use and was replaced by cured rubber. Today erasers are still cured even though they are made of synthetic rubber.

The collaboration between pencils and erasers

If you're wondering when erasers started to show up on the top of pencils, that little bit of invention came about in 1858.

If you celebrated Pencil Day on March 30th, then it's only right and just to celebrate the national celebration day of the rubber eraser on April 15th. Stationary lovers and eraser collectors unite. Gather together to celebrate this small step for mankind.

• Photo credit: Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration as part of a cooperation project. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.

1. Visit your favorite office supply store.
2. Start an eraser collection.
3. Go on an impromptu eraser hunt in your home and see how many erasers you have.
4. Create a special place or decorate a box to hold all your erasers.
5. Buy a funky pen with a crazy eraser on top.
6. Create a quick sketch using a kneaded eraser as one of the tools.
7. Make a stamp from a gum eraser.
8. Create a sculpture made up of erasers.
9. Use erasers instead of Lego blocks to build an item for your desk.
10. Create your own pencil eraser using Pliatex Mold Rubber.
11. Gather up all your old pencil erasers and recondition them.
12. Buy or make a new pencil holder to display your favorite pencil eraser tops.
13. Buy a work of art featuring an eraser such as a poster or wall decal.

1. School children
2. Librarians
3. Stationary lovers
4. Office supply geeks
5. Writers
6. Artists
7. Bookkeepers and Accountant
8. Collectors
9. Everyone else!