Colorful trivia about Crayons — blue is favorite hue

Published: Friday, May 23 2003 8:38 a.m. MDT

Summary

Binney & Smith produces nearly 3 billion crayons each year, an average of 12 million wax sticks daily — enough to circle the globe six times.

Crayola crayons are made from paraffin wax and colored pigments.

Crayolas currently come in 120 colors, including 23 reds, 20 greens, 19 blues, 16 purples, 14 oranges, 11 browns, 8 yellows, 2 grays, 2 coppers, 2 blacks, 1 white, 1 gold, 1 silver.

The Crayola Color Census 2000 revealed that Americans are true blue when it comes to crayons. Out of all the colors, blue ranked No. 1. Six shades of blue — cerulean, midnight blue, periwinkle, aquamarine, denim and cornflower — made the top 10. Least favorite? Tan, tumbleweed and yellow green.

Since 1903, Crayola colors have only been changed three times. Prussian blue was renamed midnight blue in 1958; flesh was renamed peach in 1962; Indian red was renamed chestnut in 1999.

Most color names are taken from the U.S. Commerce Department's National Bureau of Standards book called "Color: Universal Language and Dictionary of Names." Some crayon names are also borrowed from traditional artists' paints, some have been named by employees and a few by kids and kids-at-heart in contests and other events.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, parents buy enough crayons in a year to make a giant crayon 35 feet wide and 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.

The average child in the United States will wear down about 730 crayons by his or her 10th birthday. That would be 11.4 boxes of 64 crayons or 7 pounds — enough to cover an NBA basketball court.

Crayola products are sold in more than 80 countries. They are packaged in 12 languages: English, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Japanese, Swedish and Norwegian.

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Colorful trivia about Crayons — blue is favorite hue

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