more about coloring books and crayons

we learned a bit about the history of bubbles after playing with them on the first whimsical wednesday which prompts me to post a brief history of crayons and coloring books.  information was found at wikipedia.com, buzzle.com and ezinearticles.com.

coloring books as we know them today were originally intended for use with paint.  the first company to produce the books was the mcloughlin brothers company, in the 1880s, which later became a part of the milton bradley toy company.  taking the concept further, the creator of buster brown, richard f. outcault, produced a coloring book titled, buster's paint book, in 1907.  this book had the distinction of using coloring books as an advertising vehicle.  soon other such coloring books circulated to advertise many products.  there are coloring books for adults as well as for children.

the first crayons were made in europe, a mixture of charcoal and oil.  the most recognized crayon is the crayola crayon, produced by the binney-smith company, which produced paint.  the process used wax instead of oil and was mixed with pigments to make different colors.  the crayons had the added advantage of being nontoxic.  the first box of crayons was made in 1903 and contained eight colors:  red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown and black.  today the binney-smith company produces 120 colors as well as a wide variety of other art materials.  

a friend recycles used crayons by peeling off the wrappers, breaking them into small pieces and placing them into a throwaway, aluminum cake or pie pan lined with foil (sprayed with vegetable oil spray).  the pan is placed over a pot of  hot water on the stove.  the heat and steam melts the crayons into a jumble of colors.  (this process would most likely work in the microwave as well, using a non-metal container). after the crayons are completely melted the pan is moved to a hot pad to cool.  after partially cooled the "cake" of crayons is cut into pieces of any shape and size.  these are really neat to color with.  and they look great.