Who invented 'Crayola' crayons?

'Crayola' is an American brand of crayons invented by the Binney & Smith Company. Since 1984, it has been owned by the company Hallmark Cards. Before 1900, Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith made industrial products, but in 1903 started to make 'Crayola' crayons. The name came from a word invented by the wife of Mr. Binney, Alice. It comes from the French word 'craie', meaning 'chalk' and 'ola', an abbreviation for 'oleaginous' or 'oily'.

The first box of 'Crayola' crayons contained eight colours: blue, green, red, yellow, black, brown, orange and violet. Later, the company produced larges boxes containing 48, 64, 96, 120 and 200 crayons. The company also sells other writing and drawing implements, such as coloured pencils and markers.

A crayon is a wax pastel stick, in which the pigment is mixed with a dry binder such as gum arabic so that there is no dust, like in chalk. The standard size for a 'Crayola' crayon is 3 5⁄8 in × 5⁄16 in (92.1 mm × 7.9 mm).