Welcome to Get Sleepy, the podcast where we listen, we relax and we get sleepy. I'm Thomas. Thank you for tuning in. It's so great to have you here with me. I'm hoping that tonight's story will add a bit of color to the darker days that many of us are adjusting to right now. We will take a journey through the charming history of one of the world's most beloved colouring toys. Before that, I just have a few things to mention.

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To get in just the right mindset, close your eyes and simply picture a plain piece of paper. Its surface is white with no smudges or marks. It's a blank canvas for your creativity. The paper is laying flat on a sturdy wooden table, which is the perfect height for you to comfortably rest your arms. Beside the paper is a thin cardboard box. If you pick up the box and shake it lightly, you can hear several objects rattling inside.

Open the flap at the top. They're packed in tight race is a set of brand new crayons. Red, blue, yellow, green and purple. Their tips are untouched and shiny, ready to make the first line of whatever you choose to draw. When you open the box, you are greeted by a familiar smell. A deep, waxy aroma that brings you back to some of your most precious memories and the joy of coloring on a brand new page.

There's nothing quite like playing all of the colors out and deciding which one to start with. This is where we begin our story. In our imagination, where anything is possible. The crayons exact origins are not entirely clear, but history shows us that in many ways, crayons and things like them were invented and reinvented many times over. Indeed, humans have used coloured implements to illustrate their imaginations for thousands of years. Nowadays, we often associate crayons with children, but their predecessors were often used by academics, artists and writers to bring to life their vivid ideas.

One of the earliest examples of using wax to create art is encaustic or hot wax painting, which first emerged in ancient Egypt and Greece. Wax is both versatile and resilient, allowing artists to create images on stone, wood or canvas. Artists would place claim beads, wax in a bowl and gently heat it over an open flame. Then they would pour in dried pigments or powdered colors made from berries, flowers and other natural ingredients. As the wax melted, the granules of color sank and fused together during the mixing process.

But if this paint like solution cooled, it would be too hard to use. So while it was still warm, the artist would Daubert across the surface and shape it with brushes and small metal tones. The Romans took this style of encaustic painting and introduced it to all the corners of their expansive empire. Artists use the method to create highly detailed images of their leaders and gods. Even today, thousands of years after it was first invented, artists are still combining hot wax and colors to make malleable paints.

In the 13th century, artisans in Europe began to experiment with new materials for writing and teaching. They found that they were able to draw more easily on parchment and other forms of early paper by mixing sticks of black charcoal with oils. Over time, the oils were replaced with beeswax, which had much better binding properties. The other advantage of wax was that it could be combined with pigments. These creations are the ancestors of the crayons we know today. Somewhere around the 15th century, chunk based pastors appeared.

By mixing chalk and pigments into solid sticks, artists and writers were able to sketch with much more detail. Leonardo Da Vinci famously used past stories to which many of his famous diagrams, including concepts for a powered cart and a robotic knight. Pastilles later made their way to England and France, where a variety of new pigments were used in the mixture. This meant that they could be made in an exciting array of different colors, and it was in Paris that the roots of the modern crayon truly took hold.

In 1755, Nicholas Jack Conti was born in a picturesque French commune close to the river on. Conti was a precocious child who was drawn to the arts and sciences at 14. He began working as a professional painter. While also following his passion for the mechanical sciences. As an adult, Contee found himself serving as an officer in the Army during the French Revolution. By that time, his technical prowess and artistic skill were common knowledge among the troops. Before the invention of pens, the humble pencil was a more practical alternative to quills and ink fountains, especially for use in the field.

They were made from flat wood and the length of plumbago, a natural form of graphite found in England. These pantsuits were often used by soldiers to write communications, notes, supplies and more. During the course of the war, France found itself cut off from its supply of plumbago. Without more, it would be impossible to make any new pencil's. So Conti was given the task of coming up with an alternative. Ever the innovator, he got to work experimenting with possible substitutes.

After a few days, Conti came up with an intriguing solution, he mixed graphite water and clay and then pressed the mixture between two slivers of wood. He then baked the penso until the synthetic lad was Richard. Wang Conti presented his invention to his superiors. It was an immediate success, and so it was. In 1795, Conti received a patent for his pencil. He later established a company to further develop his design. He added the option for various gradients or a range of shades for the graphite.

They could be lighter or darker, depending on preference. He also added pigments to the mixture and the colored pencil was born. He continued to experiment and eventually designed a waxy pastel stick, which came in an array of colors. A few years later, France honored Conti with distinction for his crayons of various colors. Napoleon Bonaparte himself praised the inventors ability to create anything from almost nothing. The contain crayon has remained an artist's favorite for well over 200 years.

But today, it is the Crayola crayon that claims the spotlight in classrooms worldwide. And just like Contee, Criolla has a very interesting history. In 1836, Joseph Walker Beny was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in the north of England. Wakefield is a picturesque market town, centred around a tall cathedral and surrounded by wide green fields. When Joseph was young, it was a thriving hub of trade, attracting farmers and merchants from across the region. It's impossible to know for sure, but you can imagine a young Joseph drawing inspiration from a walk through his hometown's busy streets there he saw people bartering over thick bales of cloud like wall and sacks of gold and corn.

818 Joseph served as an officer in Queen Victoria's army, he fought in Eastern Europe during the Crimean War. Eventually, he returned to England, where he found himself hankering for more adventure. And so he crossed the Atlantic Ocean bound for New York City. There he was determined to start a whole new life. In bustling New York, Joseph found himself trying all manner of careers. He tried working as a reporter and as a pattern maker, designing metal costs for manufacturers, but none of it panned out.

Eventually, he moved to Peekskill, a small town about 40 miles outside of New York. He and his wife started a family. And it was there he acquired an old tobacco factory, which would become the key to their fortune. In 1864, Joseph opened the doors to the Peekskill Chemical Works. Little did he know that it was the precursor to what would eventually become Crayola. Years later, his company would be producing crayons in all the colors of the rainbow for children worldwide.

But at the time, Peekskill Chemical was not in the business of making crayons just yet. Instead, they focused on industrial pigments. The mid to late eighteen hundreds was a pivotal time for industry across America, and nowhere was that more true than in New York. The city was considered the factory of the world. It was perfectly situated near the Atlantic, which was the gateway to commerce. Yet it shoreline was protected by Long Island, which allowed for rows of docks.

From the bottom of Manhattan, running up both sides, long wooden piers splayed out into the East River and the Hudson. Ships brought in raw materials from across the world and factories made everything from clothing to carriage wheels, grand pianos to books. And one thing they all needed was Carla. As manufacturing increased, companies began to standardize their products. They all wanted to paint and die in specific shades so that everything they made would look the same. Joseph's plant initially focused on grinding and packaging hardwood charcoal and producing carbon black.

The shade was often referred to as lampblack for use in printer's ink. And it was the color responsible for his company's nickname. Binnie's Lampblack factory. To make the pigments, he and his team would burn wood, charcoal, oil, fats and metal oxides in a large furnace. The remnants from each burning session would be filtered into a fine powder and backed up into large sacks. From there, they would make their way by horse and buggy to manufacturing facilities all over.

As Joseph's business grew, so did his family. He and Danny had a son, Edwin, who showed a keen interest in his father's line of work. By the time Edwin was older, it was clear he would be joining Joseph at the factory. Edwin was fascinated by how one material through a chemical process could be transformed into something quite different. Soon, he was experimenting with other compounds and using them to create new colors and materials. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean.

Edwin's cousin, C. Harold Smith, was making his own plans to travel to New York. Harrowed was born in London in 1860. Even back then, London was a big, noisy place. Large factories were separated by thin cobbled streets and two brick chimneys pumped out sooty clouds blanketing the city in a thick, heavy smog. When he was a teenager, his family moved to far off New Zealand, a land of snow capped mountains and rolling green fields.

But TARAND saw his future in the United States, so he, too, traveled by ship to New York. Although we can't know for sure how Harrowed felt about the week's long journey, it must have been quite the adventure. You can imagine a young man standing at the side of the boat as it sailed through drifting waves. Maybe he saw a pot of dolphins in the distance skimming through the water. With a journey, as long as his harrowed probably saw at least one whale.

It's huge tail breaking the surface, only to crash down heavily once more with a splash. Whatever the trip was like for harrowed, one thing is certain. New York was very different from the New Zealand he had left behind. The city was a busy place, growing fast and always on the move. The shoreline welcomed cargo ships on a daily basis and horses pulled heavy carts through the cobblestone streets. All around, thousands of voices made up the soundtrack of the city, people from across the world speaking in countless different languages.

Harold joined his uncle's business at its newly opened office in the heart of the city. Joseph quickly put his nephew to work as a traveling salesman for Binnie's Lampblack factory. As when worked on methods for making carbon black, Harrowed traveled the country meeting people and building relationships with new customers. Around 1885, Joseph handed over Binnie's Lampblack factory to the two young men. It was up to them to build a future for it. Shortly thereafter, they rebranded as the Behney and Smith Company.

Together, they took their work to new heights. The combustion engine had been invented just a decade earlier. Naturally, there was a lot of buzz about the new motor car. Not wanting to be left out of the action, Binney and Smith began to supply black pigment to the car tire industry. They also found success selling shoe polish. At the turn of the 20th century, they purchased an old grist mill in eastern Pennsylvania where they started making pencils and other writing supplies, which they sold across the United States.

Soon after, Edwin turned his attention to chalk markers which were used in everything from schools to manufacturing. The problem was they were made from raw chalk, which produced a lot of dust. School teachers were desperate for a better alternative, so he put his mind toward fixing the problem. Eventually, he settled on a composite of slight waste, cement and talc. When it was shaped and dried, it worked perfectly. That was how Penny and Smith became the purveyor of the world's first tasteless white joke.

At the same time, Binney and Smith fixed their focus on another colorful problem. In the early 90s, hundreds crayons were imported from Europe, making them too expensive for many schools. As a result, the crayons that were shipped to the United States were mostly used in industry for making barrels and crates. Edwin and his wife, Alice, a former schoolteacher, took the issue seriously. They set about developing a crayon that would be safe enough for children while also cheap enough to buy for every classroom.

They tested several kinds of wax blends. Finally, they settled on a paraffin based wax because it left a good amount of residue when marking on paper. They also decided to use nontoxic pigments that were safe for young children. It was Alice who came up with the name for the special new crayons. She called them Criolla, which is a combination of the French word quray for Chalke. And Olá for oleaginous meaning oily in Latin. The name was printed on colored paper, which was then wrapped around each of the eight crayons in the original box.

The first colors were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown and black. Together, they were branded Crayola gold medal school crayons and sold for a nickel apiece. They were an instant hit when they were released in 1993. Soon, children were brightening up classrooms across America with their colorful drawings. Emboldened by their success, Binney and Smith started selling their crayons in general stores so kids could carry on their colorful etchings at home. Eventually, Binney and Smith crayons became so popular, the company took on their name as its own and the Criolla company was born.

Over the decades, Crayola added a wide assortment of colors, offering as many as 200 hues in a single box. It has also introduced crayons for professional artists, as well as other products, such as paints and marker pens. And, of course, they produce hundreds of thousands of wax crayons every day. The process of making crayons is meditative to watch. Wax and color blend together like a melted rainbow, warm and smooth. Many crayon makers still use paraffin wax as the main material.

They melt it and mix it with affixing powder. As the solution churns in a large hot fat, they add other ingredients like Starick acid to help the wax stick better to paper. Next, they pour in the grains of pigment, which give the crayons their distinctive colors. These granules spiral down into the mix as it turns blending with all the other components. Then they pump the solution into a large machine. Its surface is made up of thousands of long, thin, crayon shaped mons.

After the wax fills, the moans, they cover them with cold water. This helps to firm up the wax until it's solid. They use a special blade to remove any excess wax off the top of the molds, which is then recycled back into new crayons. The hard finished crayons are then pushed out of the mounts onto a conveyor rack and transported to a labelling machine. From here, they drop one by one into the grooves of a large whale with a small amount of glue.

The crayons roll around until they come to a chamber where a pretty paper label is wrapped onto each one. Then they transferred to the packaging line where staff placed bundles of crayons into large containers arranged by color. Machines then select the colors for individual boxes. Eventually, those boxes will end up in the hands of little artists around the world. Ready to get to work on my next masterpiece. And as those children sit in front of a blank piece of paper, they have a careful decision to make.

What color should I start with? So the next time you pick up one of those humble little whack sticks, remember, they really do have a colorful history. Well, that's all for our sleep journey through history for tonight. I hope you enjoyed it. And I wish you the most pleasant and colorful dreams. Good night.