How are Crayons and markers made?

Practically all of us at one time have used a crayon or a marker pen. In this article we'll go on a tour of the Crayola Factory in Easton, Penn. Binney & Smith, the maker of Crayola products, started out in the late 1800s making the color pigment for the paint used on the common red barns in rural America. Binney & Smith's carbon black was used by the Goodrich tire company to make automobile tires black and more durable. Originally, tires were white, the natural color of rubber. Crayons got their name from Edwin Binney's wife, Alice. She combined the words craie (French for chalk) with the first part of the word oleaginous (the oily paraffin wax) to make the word "crayola." The two basic ingredients for a crayon are: • Pigment • Paraffin wax, stored in heated 17,000 gallon tanks The mixture is heated until it melts into a liquid. Crayons melt at 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). The mixture is heated to 190 F (82 C). The liquid is poured into a preheated mold full of ...  more