00:00Hi, Tip. How's it going?
00:02Color me terrific. I'm feeling really sharp today, but yesterday I was feeling a bit blue.
00:09Tip, how come you know so much about crayons?
00:12Hey, read my label. I'm part of the Crayola crayon family.
00:17I was born way back in 1903 as a member of the very first batch of Crayola crayons.
00:22And I've been sticking around ever since to make sure that all of my brothers and sisters come out exactly
00:28the right shades.
00:30Tipster, if you were born so long ago, you must be as old as my grandparents.
00:36Color me a lot younger, because in crayon years, I'm still a kid, just like you.
00:42How would you guys like to go on a totally colorful trip to see how crayons like me are made?
00:48Sounds awesome, Tip. Yeah, let's go.
00:50But don't forget your shades, because where I come from, the colors are out of sight.
00:58The first thing you need to know is that Crayola crayons are made from two very simple ingredients.
01:04Pigment and paraffin wax.
01:06Pigments give crayons their color, and paraffin wax holds the color together in a shape that's easy to draw with.
01:13In fact, the name Crayola comes from the French word cray, which means stick of color,
01:20and ola, from the word oleaginous, which means oily, because paraffin wax is made from oil.
01:28Let's start with the paraffin wax.
01:30It comes to Crayola in big railroad cars like these.
01:34The train cars are heated to keep the wax warm and liquefied.
01:38The wax is loaded into these huge tanks outside of the plant, and then it's piped inside.
01:46Now, let's go inside to see what happens when the wax is mixed with the pigment.
01:52Today, we're making a totally radical shade.
01:55Laser Lemon.
01:56Check out this petal.
01:59The temperature of the crayon mixture is 240 degrees, so I'm not going to get any closer, or I might
02:06melt.
02:06Whoa!
02:08Look at that hot laser lemon color.
02:11It's supercharged.
02:13Next, the crayon molder pours the wax onto a molding table.
02:18There are 2,400 holes in the table that fill up with the mixture to form the crayons.
02:24They'll cool down and chill out in about 4 minutes.
02:28We call this the flatbed mold, because it's long and flat, like a bed.
02:34We make crayons another way, too, on a rotary molding table, which is more automated.
02:40Automated means that machines do more of the work.
02:43Both make great crayons, but because I was made on a flatbed mold, I'm showing you this way.
02:49Besides, either way you mold them, the crayons always come out crayantastic.
02:55Now, once the crayons are cooled, excess wax is scraped off and later reused.
03:01Then, a crayon collector is put on top of the mold.
03:04Next, the molder presses a button that pushes the crayons into the collector.
03:10Watch closely as the brand new crayons are pushed up.
03:14You bet you've never seen that many crayons before.
03:16The crayon maker then takes the collector to a table, where he checks to see if any of the crayons
03:22were chipped or broken.
03:24Crayons that aren't perfect are recycled and molded all over again.
03:29After being inspected, every crayon gets a label to show what color it is.
03:34The labels wrap around twice to make the crayons extra strong.
03:39Now, from our rainbow of colors, crayon packers start filling the boxes of Crayola crayons.
03:46Here in the plant, we make boxes of 6, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64 crayons, and even a 96
03:55crayon box.
03:57But the 64 box is the most famous.
04:00So, let's check out how it's made.
04:03Here, the crayons are loaded into a machine called a collator that puts the crayons into groups of different colors.
04:10Wow! Look at all those colors.
04:13They're rainbow-rific.
04:15Then, those crayons get pushed nice and snug into a cardboard sleeve.
04:20The crayons travel down a conveyor belt on their way to be put into boxes.
04:26Have a nice trip!
04:27You know, when I was born, there were only 8 colors.
04:32Now, there's over a hundred to pick from.
04:35But the colors used the most come from the original 8.
04:39Red, like me, and black.
04:41Because lots of kids like to outline their pictures in black.
04:45Finally, a machine pushes the sleeves into the boxes and inserts a crayon sharpener.
04:52And this is just the beginning of the journey for these newborn crayons.
04:57From here, they'll be sent to stores and schools all over the world.
05:01Wow, Tip. That was a totally cool and colorful report.
05:05Thanks a lot.
05:06No problem.
05:07You two stay sharp and color me out of here.
05:13You know, Tip was right about where all the Crayola products go.
05:17Kids all over the world are crazy about Crayola.
05:20And we'd like to take you to some of the places where Benny and Smith has facilities.
05:24Where they make Crayola crayons, markers, colored pencils, even paints for kids in over 60 countries.
05:31So let's go live now to meet some of Tip's colorful cousins.
05:35Our first stop is across the Atlantic Ocean to merry old England to say hello to Sir Lawrence Perrywinkle.
05:42Jolly good of you to have me here.
05:45Sir Lawrence, we've heard that kids all over England and the rest of Europe are catching on to Crayola.
05:51How right you are.
05:53The demand is absolutely smashing, especially for colored pencils, which European kids use even more than crayons.
06:02Between myself and my cousins Jean-Claude Crayola in France and Gretel von Gold in Germany, we can hardly keep
06:10up.
06:11In fact, I've got to get a batch of royal purple crayons over to the Queen right away.
06:17Can't keep Her Majesty waiting, you know.
06:20Why don't you hop over to Australia and say cheerio to my cousin, Ian Green.
06:27Well, cousin, here in the land down under we say, good day, mate.
06:32Good day, Ian.
06:33Can you tell us what the kids in Australia are drawing these days?
06:37The kids gave me this picture of the rare orange spotted blue-green kangaroo.
06:42So me and me mates have been looking all over the outback for them.
06:45Have you had any luck?
06:46Well, not yet. But we've found hundreds of these snuggly blue-striped koala bears.
06:52Well, keep up the good work, Ian. And take care of all those koalas.
06:56Sure will. Good day, mate.
06:59Now we're off to North America to say hello to Ian's cousin, Monique McBlue.
07:04Buenos dias from snowy Canada.
07:06Buenos dias. That's a Mexican greeting.
07:09And you're wearing a sombrero. I thought you were Canadian.
07:13I am, eh? But I was just in Mexico with my cousin, Senorita Turquoise,
07:17to celebrate Crayola's fiesta of color at their plant in Mexico.
07:21So I'm trying out my Spanish. Muy bien. See?
07:25Well, that is mucho cool. But what are the kids in Canada doing?
07:29Well, up here, hockey is the national sport.
07:31So all of the kids are sharpening their skates and their crayons
07:35to draw their favorite hockey shots, eh?
07:37And I'm off to the ice rink now myself. Hasta la vista.
07:41Thanks, Monique. But I think I'll stick to my favorite sport. Football.
07:46Now we're going live by satellite to Winfield, Kansas,
07:50where Crayola not only makes crayons and paints, but Crayola markers, too.
07:55Are you there, Profetti?
07:57Yes, I am. And I'm reading you loud and clear.
08:00But the name is Macaroni, not Macaroni.
08:04You've got to get that straight in your noodle.
08:07Sorry about that, Prof. Macaroni.
08:10Professor, Tip showed us how crayons were made.
08:13But we were wondering about Crayola markers.
08:16A lot of kids today like to draw and color with them.
08:19Can you show us how markers work?
08:21I'd be delighted to fill you in.
08:24But first, you have to understand that we markers are different from crayons.
08:29For example, a marker is made of many different plastic parts.
08:34And those parts are put together by a machine.
08:38And while markers are different from crayons,
08:41the end result is fundamentally the same.
08:45They're fun to draw with.
08:47It's all rather simple when you think about it.
08:50Professor, I'm still a bit confused.
08:52Can you show us how the different parts of the marker are put together?
08:56Professor, I'm still a bit confused.
08:57Come with me into my laboratory for a demonstration.
09:03First, the outside of the marker is called the barrel.
09:08And because there are more than 30 different colors of markers,
09:11each barrel has the name of the color it will become printed on it.
09:16And the color on the outside is the same as the ink on the inside.
09:20This is where the markers begin their journey.
09:23It's what we scientists call the tracking belt.
09:27The barrels travel up the belt.
09:29Then a cotton stick or filament is filled with the colored ink that you draw with.
09:35And don't worry, this needle doesn't hurt at all.
09:40The ink-filled filament then gets pushed inside of the barrel.
09:45You should know that Crayola markers come in many styles,
09:49like markers that change color that we call changeables.
09:53And we even make washable markers that wash off your skin and clothes.
09:57And that makes parents and teachers like me very happy.
10:03As we move along, a plug is placed at one end of the barrel
10:07to keep the filament from falling out.
10:10Then the barrel is turned,
10:12and the tip of the marker is put on the top.
10:15That's the part that you draw with.
10:18A cap for the marker finishes the assembly.
10:22We now have a fundamentally complete drawing machine.
10:28Finally, the markers are placed in a marker packer
10:31that sorts and boxes them for kids everywhere.
10:37It is all very fundamental.
10:39Don't you agree?
10:41You're right, Professor.
10:42Markers are fundamentally fun.
10:44Thanks, Professor.
10:45That was a remarkable report.
10:48You know, we've seen a lot about how Crayons and Markers are made today.
10:52But Binney and Smith makes a lot of other things, too.
10:55Like silly putty, art sets, clay, and even finger paints.
10:59And we thought it would be neat to take a look back at how the company got started.
11:03Way back in 1885, more than 100 years ago,
11:08Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith, who were cousins, started their company.
11:13Back then, red barns and car tires got their color
11:16thanks to a couple of Binney and Smith's first products,
11:20red pigment and carbon black.
11:22Pretty soon, the company was making other products, too,
11:25like pencils made from slate and chalk for schools.
11:29It wasn't until 1903 that the company made the very first box of Crayola crayons.
11:35It sold for just a nickel and had eight colors.
11:38Black, blue, brown, green, orange, red, violet, and yellow.
11:44And over the years, as kids wanted more crayon colors, more were created.
11:49There were 48 colors in 1949, 64 colors in 1958, and 72 in 1972.
11:58And today, there are more than 100.
12:01And in 1978, Crayola introduced their first markers.
12:05Then in 1984, Binney and Smith became part of Hallmark Cards.
12:09Hallmark makes more greeting cards than anyone else in the world.
12:12Then in 1990, to keep up with the colors that kids like us wanted,
12:17eight fun new colors were introduced.
12:19To make room for them, Crayola stopped making eight other colors
12:23that had been around for a long time.
12:25A lot of grown-ups missed those colors, and some even protested,
12:29when we retired them from active duty.
12:31This is the original box.
12:33This is the original 64.
12:34They've arbitrarily taken eight of them out of there,
12:36and they've gone to crayon heaven.
12:39So to give everyone a place to see the colors they missed so much,
12:42the Crayola Hall of Fame was created at Crayola headquarters in Easton.
12:46Now every year, tens of thousands of people come from all over the world
12:51to visit the Hall of Fame and take a tour of Crayola's famous manufacturing facilities.
