And chewing on a paraffin wax-based crayon is not the same as drinking a gallon of gasoline, even if they were both crude oil at one time. Now go out there and make the world a little bit brighter with your long-lost best friend: the crayon.
Back to Blog Homepage. Crayons are a kid's best friend Ah, the joys of childhood: recess, nap time, virtually no responsibilities, and coloring. Yes, you read that right. More on that in a minute. What's in a crayon? How often have you actually considered what was in your crayon to make it a crayon?
Responding to concerns that young children would try to eat the crayons, the company determined to produce only crayons that smelled like non-edible objects such as flowers. All crayons sold in the U. Although the ingestion of a large quantity of paraffin might result in a stomach ache, long-term effects are not likely to occur. Most toxicology evaluations in the U. Each formula for any art product is submitted to the Institute and evaluated by a toxicologist.
In addition to the out-and-out toxicity of an ingredient, a broad range of possible effects are also investigated. Testing is sometimes required, for example, to evaluate the interactions of individual ingredients within a single product or to determine whether a product will cause skin irritation. All materials must be evaluated at least every five years, and any change in the formula triggers a new evaluation.
Pluckrose, Henry. Franklin Watts, Baggerman, Lisa. Toggle navigation. Made How Volume 2 Crayon Crayon. Paraffin is pumped into supply tanks outside the crayon factory.
Each tank holds about 17, gallons of liquid. Now everyone can find their skin tone in a box of crayons and our art can be more inclusive. That's great news! And it got us wondering — how are crayons made? Crayons start out as colourless wax. Paraffin wax is delivered to a factory in its solid form. It is then heated until it becomes a liquid. Coloring is a favorite childhood activity from a young age.
Even adults are getting in on the action with the latest craze of adult coloring books. But have you ever wondered how crayons are made as you color with your child or you do a bit of your own coloring? The actual crayon manufacturing process follows that same concept of melting and molding wax, but on a much larger scale. Kids and adults alike find the process fascinating. You may even decide to whip up your own batch of crayons after learning how the favorite childhood art supply is made.
Those earlier crayons were targeted mainly toward artists, and they often were made with toxic materials to achieve particular colors. Black crayons using charcoal and other toxic ingredients were also popular for manufacturing uses as a way to mark products. A company called Binney and Smith started in the pigment industry, revolutionizing the options for pigmentation in the s. Much of that innovation revolved around using waste from drilling and mining practices to create the pigments.
The company eventually settled in Pennsylvania near a slate quarry, and the company made an inexpensive slate pencil used in schools. That work in the slate pencil industry led Binney and Smith to work more closely with schools, where they were able to get feedback from teachers on the types of products they needed. Non-toxic crayons were a common request from many teachers, as they wanted a safe way for their students to draw and color.
The company eventually expanded from producing pigments into manufacturing wax crayons using non-toxic materials to fulfill that newly discovered need in the classrooms of that time. The Binney and Smith company eventually added the Crayola division to handle the school-focused products, while keeping a separate division to continue their innovative work in the pigments industry.
In , Binney and Smith officially rolled out their crayons designed for kids. The first product was a box of eight colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown and black. The price tag for the box was five cents. The package size expanded to 48 colors in and 64 colors in The Big Box with 96 colors debuted in In fact, the company cranks out about 14 million crayons per day and produces about three billion crayons every year.
The pigments typically come in a powdered form, with the specific colors and amounts determined by the final color of the crayon being produced.
Crayons may also contain an additive to improve the strength of the crayon. No one likes a crayon that barely leaves any color on the page or breaks under the slightest pressure.
Crayon manufacturers have very specific formulas to create their products to combat those issues. The formula allows the company to produce the best balance between a texture soft enough to leave marks and hard enough to not break easily. The additives often serve this purpose of balancing those traits. The slight differences in formulas and additives cause the small differences you notice in how particular crayon brands perform.
Some brands might tend to break more easily. Others produce smoother lines. As crayon manufacturers get more creative, they experiment with other add-ins to give the crayons a unique look or finished effect.
For example, some crayons incorporate little bits of glitter into the wax, which leaves behind a sparkling effect on the paper. Others have scents added to make the crayons smell like a particular food or other items.
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