Inventors
Crayola
Crayon History
By
Mary
Bellis
Crayola brand crayons (compare
prices) were the first kids crayons ever made, invented by cousins,
Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith. The brand's first box of eight Crayola
crayons made its debut in 1903. The crayons were sold for a nickel and
the colors were black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green.
The word Crayola was created by Alice Stead Binney (wife of Edwin Binney)
who took the French words for chalk (craie) and oily (oleaginous) and combined
them.
Today, there over one hundred different
types of crayons being made by Crayola including crayons that: sparkle
with glitter, glow in the dark, smell like flowers, change colors, and
wash off walls and other surfaces and materials.
According to Crayola's "History of
Crayons"
Europe was the birthplace of the
“modern” crayon, a man-made cylinder that resembled contemporary sticks.
The first such crayons are purported to have consisted of a mixture of
charcoal and oil. Later, powdered pigments of various hues replaced the
charcoal. It was subsequently discovered that substituting wax for the
oil in the mixture made the resulting sticks sturdier and easier to handle.
The Birth of Crayola
In 1864, Joseph W. Binney founded
the Peekskill Chemical Company in Peekskill, N.Y. This company was responsible
for products in the black and red color range, such as lampblack, charcoal
and a paint containing red iron oxide which was often used to coat the
barns dotting America's rural landscape.
Peekskill Chemical was also instrumental
in creating an improved and black colored automobile tire by adding carbon
black that was found to increase the tire tread life by four or five times.
Around 1885, Joseph's son, Edwin
Binney, and nephew, C. Harold Smith, formed the partnership of Binney &
Smith. The cousins expanded the company's product line to include shoe
polish and printing ink. In 1900, the company purchased a stone mill in
Easton, PA, and began producing slate pencils for schools. This started
Binney's and Smith's research into nontoxic and colorful drawing mediums
for kids. They had already invented a new wax crayon used to mark crates
and barrels, however, it was loaded with carbon black and too toxic for
children. They were confident that the pigment and wax mixing techniques
they had developed could be adapted for a variety of safe colors.
In 1903, a new brand of crayons with
superior working qualities was introduced - Crayola Crayons.
Edward
Binney & Harold Smith
Co-invented Crayola crayons -
Invention
Dimension.
Crayola®
Crayons
In 1903, soon after developing them,
Binney & Smith sells the first box of eight Crayola crayons for one
nickel. The box includes black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow,
and green.
The
Crayon Homepage
From the Crayola Company whose founders
invented the first crayons.
Crayola®
Crayon Chronology
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©Mary
Bellis
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