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Gr 1–4–For many children, crayons are ubiquitous, everyday items, but as this informational picture book attests, that wasn't always the case. The hero of this tale is Edwin Binney, American businessman and inventor. In the early 1900s, Binney (who'd already pioneered dustless chalk for teachers) listened to his customers and family when they clamored for a new product: inexpensive, easy-to-use crayons for children. After a l...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

The world has Edwin Binney's former-schoolteacher wife to thank for encouraging the Crayola crayons inventor to create "better, cheaper crayons" for children. At the turn of the twentieth century, Binney and his cousin C. Harold Smith ran a company that sold carbon black pigment, among other products. Fascinated by the natural world's many colors, Binney experimented with grinding rocks and minerals and mixing their pigments with wax and clay. In June 1903 he developed eight different-colored non...Log In or Sign Up to Read More