The Crayola Experience - Easton, PA
N 40° 41.451 W 075° 12.578
18T E 482287 N 4504460
Inside the Crayola building is a pictorial history and complete inventory of this colorful company history as well as a small museum focusing on the cultural, and unique American aspect of crayola crayons. Children can also see crayons being made!
Waymark Code: WMGRW1
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 04/06/2013
Views: 6
The museum portion of the factory tour and play area celebrates the history of Crayola, from the first crayon to the newest colors wheeled out to all the other colors which have appeared in between. Of particular note is the display featuring the the 100 billionth crayon molded by "Mister Rogers" in February 1996. The crayon was won in a company-sponsired contest by a grandmother from Washington state who sold it back to Binney & Smith for a $100,000 bond. The entire museum portion of the tour is really unusual and very proprietary but for its historical elements, interesting, too and effective in transmitting a concise business lesson.
The museum was a singular experience for me. As I looked under composite 'glass' and gazed at examples of crayon boxes from 40 years ago or longer, I was awakened to memories of my own childhood. They were good memories.
The “Factory Floor” level of the discovery center features crayon manufacturing and marker assembly, using machinery transferred from the nearby production plant. Behind a glass wall is the flatbed molder that makes a small percentage of the company’s crayons. Watch a worker pour a mixture containing melted paraffin wax and powdered pigment from a bucket onto a long table with thousands of small holes. Bright yellow wax seeps into the holes. After four to seven minutes of cooling, 1,200 crayons magically appear as they are pushed up and out of the molds! The worker also demonstrates and explains the labeling and packaging machines. SOURCE