How was bubble wrap invented? the unlikely stories of the brainwaves we all take for granted | Daily Mail Online How was bubble wrap invented? The unlikely stories of the brainwaves we all take for granted By Daily Mail Reporter Updated: 21:04 EST, 9 November 2011 comments Forget the spaceship, the satnav or the iPad. The best inventions are so seamlessly absorbed into our lives that we forget how clever they are. Yesterday, the Science Museum launched a new exhibition devoted to the everyday innovations we couldn't live without. Here's a selection ... BUBBLE WRAP Engineers Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes came up the idea for bubble wrap while working on a new type of textured wallpaper in 1957. By sealing two shower curtains together, they trapped a layer of bubbles. It didn't work as wallpaper, but Chavannes had something of a eureka moment during a flight when it seemed to him for a moment as though his plane's descent was being cushioned by clouds. It planted a seed of an idea that his bubbly wallpaper could actually be used for something very different. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share So it was that his shower curtain prototype was refined and marketed instead as protective packaging.

The appealing popping sound made by bursting the air pockets has led to a worldwide Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, which falls on the last Monday in January. The event celebrated its tenth anniversary this year. Pop! STICKING PLASTER The plaster was invented in 1920 by Earle Dickson, who worked for the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson in New Jersey. Dickson was inspired by his wife, Josephine, who often burnt or cut herself in the kitchen. An invention of love? Earle Dickson invented the plaster as a solution for his wife, Josephine, who often burnt or cut herself in the kitchen There had been bandages before, but none with the same adhesive, and easy to apply, qualities - meaning they usually had to be put on by someone else. With the sticking plaster, Mrs Dickson could treat herself. In 1938, a completely sterile plaster was patented and by 1942, Johnson & Johnson were shipping millions of their Band-Aids to the medics treating wounded soldiers. TIN CAN We have the war-mongering Napoleon Bonaparte to thank for events which led to the invention of the tin can.

In 1809, Napoleon's troops were embroiled in the Peninsular War in Spain. Anxious about how to feed his army on long campaigns, Napoleon launched a competition to find a solution. War food: We have Napoleon Bonaparte to thank for the humble tin can, it is now used for soft drinks and food French chef Nicolas Appert devised a means of preserving food in glass jars sterilised with boiling water (and won himself 12,000 francs). A year later, Britsh manufacturer Peter Durand dreamt up an improved design. He replaced the breakable glass with thin sheets of iron coated with tin. The early cans, however, were soldered airtight with lead, which caused lead poisoning. The most famous example of this came in an 1845 when members of the Arctic expedition team headed by explorer Sir John Franklin suffered fatal lead poisoning after three years of eating canned food. ELASTIC BAND London businessman Stephen Perry patented the elastic band in 1845, to hold letters together. London businessman Stephen Perry patented the elastic band in 1845, to hold letters together.

His company, Messrs Perry and Co Rubber Manufacturers of London, produced all sorts of goods, but the elastic band was their real moneyspinner, formed by slicing a long rubber tube into thousands of wafer-thin loops. The Royal Mail is now the biggest consumer of rubber bands in the UK, using up to 342 million of them every year. In 2004, the colour was changed to red to encourage postmen to pick them up. TEA BAG Convenient: Thomas Sullivan, from New York, became the first commercial tea salesman to have the bright idea of putting tea in bags, initially as samples but customers soon caught onto the idea Until the first teabags were introduced in 1903, tea was always sold loose and had to be strained during pouring. In 1908, Thomas Sullivan, from New York, became the first commercial tea salesman to have the bright idea of putting tea in bags, initially as samples. His earliest wares were expensively packed in bags made of silk - cheap paper bags weren't introduced until the 1930s. Sullivan had intended for the loose tea to be removed from each bag, but his customers made the real breakthrough in convenience themselves.

They took to dunking the unopened packets in hot water to test the quality of each tea shipment - a practice that's held fast ever since. STICKY TAPE Engineer Richard Drew, from Minnesota, invented sticky tape in 1930, when he worked out a way of giving adhesive qualities to cellophane (itself a new material, which gave its name to Sellotape). Taped up: Sticky tape was invented in 1930 and earned its name 'scotch tape after a customer accused the manufacturer of being a 'stingy Scotch' The brilliance of Drew's adhesive came from its ability to stick other things together, but not get stuck to itself or leave any residue behind as it came off the roll. It acquired another name, Scotch Tape, when a customer accused the 'stingy Scotch' proprietor of the manufacturer of not putting enough adhesive on the tape. The company liked the insult, and decorated the tape with a tartan design; they even came up with a kilted boy, as a brand mascot. Code words: The bar code was inspired by the dots and dashes of Morse code BAR CODE A mechanical engineer called Norman Woodland patented the barcode in America in 1952.

Inspired by the dots and dashes of Morse code, Woodland, in an inspired piece of lateral thinking, stretched those symbols to produce a more easily readable code. He sketched out the designs in the sand on a Florida beach, before he applied it, with worldwide success, to supermarket checkouts. LIGHTBULB Thomas Edison is widely credited as the inventor of the lightbulb in 1880, but it is less well known that Englishman Sir Joseph Swan invented his own prototype lightbulb in the same year. Seeing a commercial advantage in joining forces, the two inventors formed the Ediswan company. The technology is fairly simple: light is produced by heating a metal filament wire until it glows. While scientists had produced 22 different kinds of light bulbs before the Edison, his was far better. It produced a brighter light, had a more powerful vacuum to protect the filament, and lasted for longer. The light came on: While scientists had produced 22 different kinds of light bulbs before the Edison, his was far better By 1881, the Savoy Theatre in London was lit by Swan lightbulbs, making it the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity.

ear plugs The idea of plugging your ears has been around since time immemorial; Odysseus asks his men to plug their ears with beeswax in the ancient Greek epic, the Odyssey, to stop them being seduced by the Sirens who lured sailors to jump overboard with their silken voices. The more practical modern earplug was created in Germany, in 1907, when Max Negwer set up the company, Ohropax , which mass-produced plugs made of wax and cotton wool. Vaseline added to the paraffin wax made the plugs soft and flexible, meaning they could be reused, and were ultra-sensitive to the shape of the ear. ZIP A Swedish electrical engineer, Gideon Sundback, patented the zip in 1913. He had been working for the Universal Fastener Company in New Jersey for seven years, perfecting earlier types of zips, when he came up with the 'Hookless Fastener No 1' -two rows of teeth clamped together by a sliding piece of metal.

The earliest zippers were used to seal tobacco pouches, but it wasn't until the 1930s that the invention began to appear on clothing after an American campaign lobbied to have zips sewn into children's clothes to make it easier for them to get dressed without a parent. Men's magazine Esquire, founded in the 1930s, praised the zip's potential to do away with 'the possibility of unintentional and embarassing disarray'. Hidden Heroes: The Genius Of Everyday Things is at the Science Museum, London, until May 30. Cool Inventions - Accidental Invention Stories at WomansDay.com! Shutterstock Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Did you ever wonder how some of your favorite foods, products or toys came about? Believe it or not, they may have been an accident, coincidence or failed version of some other intention. Below, we found nine mistakes we're thankful turned out to be what they are. Read on, and tell us: What products are you wondering about? If we get enough responses, we just might dig up the answers for you.

Fireworks Most Popular Most historians speculate that the Chinese invented fireworks in the 9th century when they discovered how to make gunpowder. Legend has it that a Chinese chef accidentally mixed together what were then considered common kitchen items—potassium nitrate or saltpeter (a salt substitute), sulfur (a flammable solid) and charcoal (from charred wood)—and noticed they ignited. When compressed in a bamboo tube and lit, it blew up. Another legend credits Taoist monks with a similar discovery 1,000 years ago. Photo by Shutterstock. Potato Chips In 1853, chef George Crum at the Moon Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York, attempted to satisfy a customer's demand for crispier fried potatoes. Going to the extreme, Crum sliced the potatoes paper-thin, baked and then fried them to a hardened crisp. Following the happy accident, "Saratoga Chips" became a regular item on the menu, and in 1860, Crum opened his own restaurant, at which potato chips were placed in a basket on every table. Photo by Shutterstock.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Saccharin Chemist Constantin Fahlberg is credited as the accidental inventor of saccharin—the sweetener in the ubiquitous Sweet'N Low pink packets. The story goes, in 1879, Fahlberg was testing coal tar at Johns Hopkins University for his mentor Professor Ira Remsen. One night he didn't wash his hands before dinner and he noticed the substance coating them tasted sweet—saccharin is 300 to 500 times sweeter than real sugar. Photo by iStock. Coca-Cola Advertisement - Continue Reading Below In May of 1886, a prohibition law prompted John Pemberton, an Atlanta-based pharmacist, to rewrite the formula for "Pemberton's French Wine Coca," his popular nerve tonic, stimulant and headache remedy. Containing sugar instead of wine as a sweetener, the outcome became the syrup base for Coke, which was later mixed with carbonated water. Pemberton's bookkeeper suggested the name Coca-Cola because he thought the two C's would look good together, and scripted its very first logo in his unique handwriting. Photo by iStock.

Silly Putty Most Popular In 1943, while attempting to create a synthetic rubber substitute, General Electric researcher James Wright dropped boric acid into silicone oil. The result was a polymerized substance that bounced. It took several years to find a use for the product, but in 1950, marketing expert Peter Hodgson saw its potential as a toy and renamed it Silly Putty. The substance has been manufactured by Binney & Smith, Inc. ever since. Photo courtesy of Crayolastore.com. Microwave Oven During World War II, scientists at the University of Birmingham invented the magnetron—a critical heat-producing component of the microwave oven. While working for Raytheon Corporation after the war, American engineer Percy Spencer was testing the magnetron when a chocolate bar in his pocket melted. He went on to test other foods including popcorn kernels and an egg (which exploded), and found it to be a much more efficient way to cook. In 1947 Raytheon came out with the first restaurant microwave oven, which was six feet tall and weighed 750 lbs. Photo by Shutterstock. Velcro Though not an unintentional creation, the inspiration was purely accidental.

One day in 1948, Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral returned home from a hike with several burrs clinging to his pants. After microscopic examination, he surmised that the small hooks on the burr, if combined with a piece of fabric comprised of loops, like his slacks, could work as a fastening strip. Shortly after, what we know today as Velcro—a combination of the two French words "velours" (velvet) and "crochet" (hook)—was born. Photo by iStock. Bubble Wrap In 1957, two Hawthorne, New Jersey–based engineers named Marc Chavannes and Alfred W. Fielding set out to invent textured plastic wallpaper. Though their product wasn't well-received, the two turned their misfortune into fortune—literally—when they realized it could be used as packaging material. In 1960, they cofounded Sealed Air Corporation, which now makes a variety of packaging material systems and equipment, bringing in over $3 billion annually. Photo by Shutterstock. Post-it Note In 1968, Spencer Silver, a researcher for 3M, accidentally created a glue formula that was weaker than normal.

Six years later, irritated by repeatedly losing the bookmark in his church choir hymnal book, Arthur Fry, his 3M colleague, applied some of the low-strength, nondamaging adhesive to his page-savers—it proved to be the perfect solution. Fry sold his supervisor on the idea, and trial marketing began in 1977. Photo by Shutterstock. Most Popular: Slippery Rock Gazette | Did You Know that Bubble Wrap was Originally Intended as Textured Wallpaper? Better! Faster! Cheaper! Did You Know that Bubble Wrap was Originally Intended as Textured Wallpaper? One of Bubble Wrap’s first big shipping assignments? Protective wrapping to help cocoon the enormous and delicate IBM computing machines during transport, in 1959. What’s a common product that nearly everyone has used or received at some point in their lives? Bubble Wrap. Alfred W. Fielding and Mark Chavannes co-invented Bubble Wrap in the late 1950s. Today, Sealed Air Corporation, the Saddle Brook, New Jersey-based company he co-founded in 1960, is a worldwide manufacturer of packaging materials with annual revenues in the billions.

Fielding’s story is one of those inspirational invention tales with a creative, unintended twist - a success story that even today engineering students can learn from as they look forward to their careers. The early history of Bubble Wrap demonstrates, for inventors, that keeping an open mind to possible applications is a clear advantage - ultimately, you may start out trying to invent one thing, only to hit on an even better idea. Inventor & Entrepreneur The story begins in 1957 in a garage in Hawthorne, New Jersey, with two entrepreneurial engineers hard at work, Fielding and his partner, a Swiss inventor named Marc Chavannes. They are trying to invent a textured, plastic wallpaper with a paper backing. They started out by sealing two shower curtains together in such a way that it would capture air bubbles, which would make the textured appearance for their wallpaper. It fails. But along the way they realize their invention could be used for packing material, thus, giving birth to what is now known around the world as Bubble Wrap, and the Sealed Air Corporation, the company that has developed and marketed it. Through its technology, Sealed Air Corporation essentially built a specialty chemical business in protective packaging.

The Early Years of Bubble Wrap It was three years after the initial creation of Bubble Wrap that Frederick W. Bowers, a marketer at Sealed Air, which makes Bubble Wrap, finally came up with the perfect use for their product. On October 5, 1959, IBM announced their new 1401 variable word length computer. Bowers got the idea that Bubble Wrap could be used as a good packaging material to protect the computer while it was being shipped. He then pitched the idea to IBM and demonstrated Bubble Wrap’s protective abilities. His demonstration went over well and IBM began purchasing Bubble Wrap to protect their 1401 and other fragile product they sold and shipped. From those humble beginnings, the company has grown to annual sales of around $4 billion with a net profit of around $255 million. For reference, about 10 percent of Sealed Air’s revenue comes from Bubble Wrap, so around $400 million worth of Bubble Wrap is sold annually. One common misconception about Bubble Wrap is that it is created using machinery that inflates and then seals each and every bubble. In fact, it’s made by trapping air bubbles in between two sheets of plastic as they are heated and passed between rollers.

Fun with Bubbles Sealed Air continually does extreme demonstrations showing how much better Bubble Wrap performs at protecting fragile items. In one such demonstration, they dropped an 815-pound pumpkin from a height of 35 feet onto layers of Bubble Wrap. The pumpkin survived the fall without a scratch. Among its many uses, Bubble Wrap can be used as a cheap burglar alarm by placing large bubbled bubble wrap on the floor in front of your door. Another common, but annoying use: stress relief, by popping the little bubbles, one–by– one. A final weird fact, and a mystery: the amount of Bubble Wrap produced by Sealed Air annually is enough to wrap the entire Earth (at the equator) with Bubble Wrap about 10 times. Where does it all go? Inventors Of Everyday Things That You Didn't Know About Discovery Inventions People Science Scientists Some of the products that we often use in our daily lives appear so common and everyday that we forget that someone might have invented it at some point in the past. Hence, inventors of everyday things often don’t get the due credit and appreciation which they really deserve.

Here is the list comprising some very genius inventors of everyday things with their inventions/products that had a huge impact on our lives. Inventors Of Everyday Things Ermal Fraze – pop top soda cans. In 1959, Ermal Fraze who was the owner of a successful engineering company, had gone for a picnic with his friends. He realized it there in-between their picnic that he’d forgotten to bring a can opener for the drinks. Ultimately, he had to use his car bumper for getting the job done. Months later, while he was having some trouble in sleeping, this ‘Can-Dilemma’ just caught his imagination. And for waiting to get tired during this process, he decided to solve it immediately. Eventually he ended up inventing the ‘Pop Top Can’ that could be easily opened up with a removable tab. Later, Fraze set up a company to mass manufacture these cans in bulk. His company then became a principal supplier of these cans to the soft drinks and brewery companies. By 1980, Fraze’s company pulled up a staggering $500 million from this simple yet brilliant invention. Just thank Ernie every time you open a can. He made our life really easy! 2.

Joseph Friedman – Bendable Straw In 1937, Joseph Friedman was at his brother’s soda shop. To his surprise, his young girl was struggling to enjoy her beverage through a straight paper straw. So he started thinking of a way to help her out. Friedman put in a screw into the straw, and wrapped floss around it to create a ribbed texture. When he took the screw out, the straw naturally bent over the rim of the glass and his daughter was able to drink her milkshake with ease. He patented his idea in 1937 and started his own company to produce the straw. The rights to the flexible straw were eventually sold to the Maryland Cup Corporation, which now sells about 500 million of them every year. 3. James Goodfellow – ATM Pin Numbers In 1966, James Goodfellow, a Scottish engineer was assigned with a job to find out a way by which the people could draw money from their banks after the scheduled work hours and on weekends. Goodfellow created the Personal Identification Number (PIN), which gradually gave birth to the idea of ATM.

He simply linked the identity of the customer to a number encoded in a card, as voice recognition and finger print detection were difficult those days. He patented the Pin Number in 1966. Today, his system can be found in ATMs worldwide, and also everywhere where the Debit Cards are also accepted for transactions. 4. Hymen Lipman – Modern Pencil with an Eraser at the end In 1858, there were lead pencils and there were erasers, and both came as separate products. But no one ever gave it a thought that they could be combined until Lipman came up with his idea. He received his patent on May 30th the same year. Lipman sold his patent for an enormous amount of $100,000, which was definitely a fortune in the mid-19th century. And today it’s very hard to find a pencil in a classroom without an eraser at the end of it. 5. Margaret Knight – Flat-Bottomed Paper Bag Margaret Knight used to work in paper bag factory. She observed that it was tough to pack things into the flimsy, shapeless sacks.

So, she went ahead to invent a machine that could fold and glue paper to make a flat-bottomed bag. However, another employee named Charles Annan copied her idea and got a patent for it before she could. Knight sued Annan for copyright infringement wherein Annan argued that since Knight was a woman, she couldn’t be the true inventor. Eventually, Knight’s sketches and detailed plans for the machine won her the case later. She then established her own paper bag company and received large sums of royalties for her invention. 6. Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes — Bubble Wrap Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes accidentally invented the bubble wrap while trying to design a new type of textured wall paper wallpaper in 1957. Their accidental discovery, the bubble wrap went on to become the most effective packing material in the history. They later founded the Sealed Air Corporation, a company that now produces annual revenues exceeding $8 billion, and employs 26,300 people across 175 countries.The appealing popping sound made by bursting the air pockets has led to a worldwide Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, which falls on the last Monday in January. The event celebrated its tenth anniversary this year. Pop! 7.

Melitta Bentz – Modern Day Coffee Brewing Method Melitta Bentz can be acknowledged and credited for the ease in getting our early morning Espressos and late night’s Cappuccinos. She figured out a way to make the bitter coffee better and changed the way we perceived and tasted coffee. Her brilliant method got her a patented coffee filter system in 1908.She experimented with her son Willi’s school exercise book and a brass pot perforated using a nail. When the grounds-free, less bitter coffee met with general enthusiasm, she decided to set up a business. 8. Katharine Burr Blodgett – Non-Reflective Glass Katherine was the first woman ever to receive a PhD in physics at England’s Cambridge University. She was also the first woman employee of General Electric. She invented non-reflective glass, which found use in camera and movie projector lenses. It is also indispensable for eyeglasses, car windshields and computer screens today. There are many amazing technologies in the world but these inventors played their part in making our life easier too. These are the people at the top of the pyramid, the top 1% of the people and we should be thankful to them for their creations.

Share this post Celebrate Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day | The UPS Store Canada Celebrate Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day Date: January 22, 2016 Category: Shipping If you’re still struggling to shake off the melancholy of the January blahs, here’s something that should help burst your bad news bubble: January 25, 2016 marks the 15th annual Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day. Celebrated on the last Monday of every January, Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day is a chance to praise the pervasive packing material that’s great at protecting our valuables…and so much fun to pop. Originally known as Air Cap, Bubble Wrap® was invented in 1957, the creation of American engineer Alfred Fielding and his Swiss colleague Marc Chavannes. The pair initially joined two plastic shower curtains together, left some air bubbles inside, and tried to market it as textured wallpaper. When that didn’t catch on, the two inventors tried another tack: pitching it as insulation for greenhouses. Unfortunately, the new direction did little to grow sales. Things changed in 1960, when Chavannes had an epiphany while riding on a plane.

As his bumpy flight was coming in to land at Newark Airport, Chavannes looked out the window and had the sensation that the clouds were cushioning the descent. Suddenly, the idea came to him to try and sell their product as protecting wrapping for shipping. Things really began to take off that same year when IBM was looking for something to protect shipments of its new 1401 Data Processing System, one of the world’s first mass-produced computers. With that, Bubble Wrap found its first big customer, and sales began to inflate in a hurry. More than half a century later, parent company Sealed Air now brings in more than $4 billion US in annual revenue, manufacturing its protective packaging in 52 different countries. Put together, the number of bubble wrap sheets produced each year would stretch around the equator 10 times, or all the way to the moon and back. Bubble Wrap has become a true cultural phenomenon, boasting more than 250 Facebook fan pages and being featured in movies such as ‘Ace Ventura, Pet Detective’ and ‘Wall-E.’ In 1997, actress Farrah Fawcett posed for the cover of Playboy magazine provocatively covered only by Bubble Wrap.

And in 2009, New York’s Museum of Modern Art hung a sheet of Bubble Wrap on its walls as part of an exhibition honouring ‘Everyday Marvels.’ Besides being famous for its superior cushioning qualities, people of all ages love Bubble Wrap because so many of them yearn to burst it, deflating each air pocket to create a satisfying ‘pop.’ Studies have shown that bursting air pockets can reduce stress and fatigue, and that one minute of popping the tiny bubbles provides the same relief as more than 30 minutes of massage. Still if you’d rather not destroy it, there are many ways to use Bubble Wrap that go beyond protecting fragile items. Here’s a look at some of the creative ways people have put it to other uses. Insulate your windows: Does your home feel drafty? Simply cut a sheet of bubble cushioning to the size of your window, spray the window with water, and place the flat side against the glass for instant insulation. Since the wrap is clear, you won’t lose the natural light. Burglar alarm: Lay a sheet of bubble cushioning inside your doors and windows. Unwanted intruders will alert you to their presence with a pop-pop-pop sound as they activate your alarm.

Winterize your pipes: In colder months, wrap it around pipes and outdoor spouts and tie it with string to help prevent damage. Protect your windshield in winter: Tired of scraping ice off your windshield every morning? Cover it with a sheet of bubble cushioning the night before to reduce frost. And if it snows overnight, just pull it off and the snow will come with it! Keep your pets warm: Insulate your dog’s outdoor house with bubble cushioning to keep him warm when the temperature begins to drop in the fall. Protect your plants: Before frost hits, wrap your outdoor potted plant containers to keep the soil warm and frost-free. Prevent damage when moving: When moving furniture, wrap sharp corners of tables and desks in bubble cushioning so they don’t scratch your walls. Add comfort to camping: Lay down a sheet of bubble cushioning before staking your tent, which will protect you from the ground’s moisture and act as an air mattress beneath your sleeping bag. Make a fun placemat: Using rectangular cut-outs of bubble cushioning is not only fun for your guests, it also makes post-party clean-up a breeze. Add a twist to Twister: Playing the popular game with friends?

Add a layer of bubble cushioning to give it some extra pop. Add texture to paintings: Instead of using sponges for texture, dip pieces of bubble cushioning in paint and get artistic. Fatten your wallet: Impress your date by padding your wallet with a sheet of bubble cushioning. There are also several games that give you the virtual sensation of bursting bubbles: The makers of Bubble Wrap® brand cushioning have released an iPhone app ( ) that allows you to pop virtual bubbles all day long. Brief History Of Cardboard Boxes + The History Of Bubble Wrap Brief History Of Cardboard Boxes + The History Of Bubble Wrap By Joshua Green , a moving industry professional, author and writer. Posted on Moving Guides The extraordinary versatility of modern-day corrugated cardboard boxes and the outstanding protection of bubble wrap are hard to match during a house move. And yet, their respective invention and development stories are full of exciting highs and disappointing lows. The complicated process of moving house is packed up with so many relocation tasks that home movers’ brains often get overloaded and sometimes even overheated as a result, and consequently refuse to process any further bits of information until they get an adequate downtime to relax and cool off a little bit.

During the chaotic period of moving from one house to another, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that most people take things for granted and pay little attention to some intriguing and yet cleverly disguised details about, let’s say, their packing materials. Moving boxes and bubble wrap! These are two integral components that are present at every single house move and yet you have probably never felt the urge to obtain more information about them. Seriously, when was the last time you wanted to learn about the fascinating history of the cardboard box and the captivating history of bubble wrap? Yes, because their histories are nothing short of fascinating and captivating! Did you know that the modern pre-cut corrugated cardboard box was invented by an “unfortunate” accident? Did you know that bubble wrap was originally designed as three-dimensional textured wallpaper? Fasten your seatbelts, for we are about to take a quick trip back in time and trace the highs and lows in the development of corrugated cardboard boxes and bubble wrap. Plus, you will be treated with some hand-picked fun facts about each of the two most versatile packing supplies ever. Ready?

The History Of Corrugated Cardboard Boxes Nobody in the 1800s must have suspected the fundamental role corrugated cardboard boxes would play in the future. 105 AD, China. The fascinating history of corrugated cardboard boxes starts in Ancient China where paper – one of the greatest inventions of all time – was invented around 100 BC during the Han dynasty. However, it wasn’t until 105 AD that the likes of a paper-making industry was established by a government official named Ts’ai Lun. The resourceful Chinaman started producing paper with the help of a groundbreaking concoction of chopped mulberry bark, hemp rags and water. Ts’ai Lun’s paper production method of flattening the unusual mixture, removing the excess water and letting it dry in the sun proved to be a great success and quickly spread throughout China. 1817. In 1817, the British industrialist Sir Malcolm Thornhill was the first person to produce commercial boxes from single cardboard sheets. However, the look and feel of Thornhill’s boxes had little in common with the unmistakable and painfully familiar design of the corrugated cardboard boxes of today. 1856.

Corrugated paper was patented in England in 1856, and the patent was awarded to the British inventors Edward Allen and Edward Healey. Interestingly, the corrugated paper of that time was only used as a lining material for tall hats, and its practical usage as packing and shipping materials was not recognized until years later (15 to be exact). 1871. In 1871, the entrepreneur Albert Jones of New York was granted the patent for single-sided corrugated board as a shipping material. The New Yorker used the corrugated board to wrap glass bottles for safe shipping. 1874. The history of cardboard boxes continues with the actual invention of corrugated cardboard as we know it today. In 1874, a man by the name of Oliver Long took the next logical step and improved the corrugated board design by adding liner sheets on both sides of the cardboard. His brilliant idea took the crush resistance and stacking strength of the cardboard boxes of that time to another level – the newly-designed packing boxes could hold heavier loads without breaking and allowed to be safely stacked much higher. The very first machine for mass production of double-sided corrugated board was built the same year.

1890. It was left to a printer and a paper bag maker from Brooklyn to put the finishing touches to the modern corrugated cardboard box. In 1890, Robert Gair invented the pre-cut cardboard by sheer accident. One day, a metal ruler that was used to crease the bags in his factory malfunctioned and consequently cut the bags instead of crease them. The “unfortunate” accident that seemingly destroyed 20,000 seed bags made the Brooklynite realize that by cutting and creasing the cardboard material, he could make prefabricated cartons with flat pieces that folded into convenient packing boxes. Fun Facts About Cardboard Boxes Here are some fun facts about cardboard boxes without whose convenience, practicality and affordability any residential move would be simply unthinkable. A corrugated cardboard box can have a very interesting and diversified post-primary life. In other words, the cardboard battle may be lost but the corrugated fiberboard war has just begun. 1895 was the year in which the very first corrugated cardboard box was manufactured in the USA. Today, around 90% of all products in the USA are shipped in cardboard containers.

The Regular Slotted Container (RSC) is, without a doubt, the most common cardboard box whose major flaps meet in the center while its minor ones do not. Nowadays the design of corrugated boxes is widely varied with the purpose of meeting the particular needs of the products for packing and shipping, the environmental hazards and the requirements of retailers and consumers alike. Needless to say, corrugated fiberboard has a higher resistance to bending than flat fiberboard of equal mass. Cardboard boxes are completely safe to be disposed of because the raw material is 100% biodegradable and does not contain any harmful substances. Around 70% of the world’s cardboard is recycled and as a result, most of the cardboard boxes of today are manufactured from re-used materials. Silk manufacturers have used cardboard boxes to transport the Bombyx mori moth and its eggs from Japan to Europe since 1840. Thanks to the affordability of the material, a cardboard box can serve as the foundation of a wide range of exciting projects – from insulation linings through one-of-a-kind costumes to children’s toys.

Speaking of toys, it’s not an uncommon sight to see children toss the brand new toy they have been given and play with the cardboard package instead. In fact, the reputation of corrugated cardboard boxes as playthings is so strong that the cardboard box was included in the National Toy Hall of Fame (now part of The Strong – an interactive educational institution in Rochester, NY) as a rare toy that is not affiliated with any specific brand. London was the site of the so-called Cardboard City – an area close to Waterloo station where more than 200 homeless people used to sleep in cardboard boxes from 1983 until 1998. Later, all of the Cardboard City residents were offered free housing and now the area is the site of the London IMAX cinema. In 2004, the Australian architect Peter Ryan designed and built up an entire house only with cardboard boxes. Related articles: How to prepare an essentials box Brief History Of Bubble Wrap And now that you are familiar with the captivating history of corrugated boxes and have learned some interesting facts about the omnipresent moving containers, let’s take a quick look at the development of the second most common packing material when moving house – bubble wrap.

Brilliant visionaries as they were, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes could hardly foresee the creation of electronic bubble wrap as an effective way to relieve stress. 1957, Hawthorne, N.J. Two engineers named Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes set out to create three-dimensional plastic wallpaper in their garage. They sealed two shower curtains together in a way that would ensure enough air was captured in the middle to create the textured effect they were after. Luckily for future home movers, their wallpaper idea was not successful. 1960, New Jersey. Although their original intention was a failure, the two inventors saw the great protective potential of their new creation as a packing material of fragile items. Sealed Air Corporation was co-founded in 1960 by Alfred Fielding. Today. Now headquartered in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, Sealed Air Corporation is a worldwide manufacturer of packaging materials. The amount of bubble wrap the packaging company produces annually is sufficient to wrap the equator of our planet approximately ten times. Fun Facts About Bubble Wrap Here are a few curios facts about bubble wrap – the well-known cost effective method of ensuring that fragile items and sensitive electronic equipment will remain completely intact during the move from one home to another.

Just bubble wrap your breakables and the air-filled bubbly material will absorb any undesirable shocks during transit and thus keep your prized possessions safe until you reach your new residence. Bubble wrap is made from polyethylene film. Contrary to popular belief, the air bubbles are not inflated by any specialized equipment but are simply formed when air gets trapped between two plastic sheets /the shaped side of the film gets heated and bonded to the other flat side while passing between rollers/. Originally, bubble wrap was used to protect sensitive electronic parts and components, usually with anti-static plastic that dissipates static charge and keeps the electronic equipment from being damaged. Nowadays, most of the produced bubble wrap is used for packing food and fragile/breakable items. The most common bubble size is 0.4’’ (10 mm), but the air-filled pockets can be as tiny as 1/4’’ (6 mm) in diameter and as big as 1’’ (26 mm). Interestingly enough, the air bubbles can be shaped differently from the widely recognized and trusted tiny hemispheres. What about a romantic sheet of pink heart-shaped bubble wrap as a memorable gift for your partner?

Sealed Air Corporation is also known for their unusual yet effective demonstrations of just how good bubble wrap is for protecting fragile items. One time, they dropped a pumpkin from 35 feet onto pre-arranged layers of bubble wrap and, of course, the pumpkin survived the fall unscathed. 5. Bubble wrap painting can be a fun activity for the entire family. Paint the air bubbles in your favorite colors and press them against a blank sheet of paper for unique colorful patterns. Bubble wrap can be an excellent stress reliever, especially when the moving stress reaches harmful levels. Bursting its air bubbles is not only a lot of fun, but the popping sound is believed to be therapeutic as well, with a proven calming effect on the nerves. The practical and sometimes not-so-practical applications of air trapped between plastic sheets can be just too many to count. Thus said, only the limits of our own imagination can prevent us from inventing a great bubble wrap contraption or from enjoying some fun moments with the world-famous packing material. Here are just a handful of the many uses and disguises of bubble wrap: Place a large sheet of bubble wrap on the floor in front of your house door and you get the most inexpensive burglar alarm ever.

You want an eco-friendly ball gown to catch your friends’ attention? You can’t go wrong with a formal bubble wrap dress. Do you actually want to hear as one day ends and another begins? Make yourself a bubble wrap calendar! To prevent heat loss in your new home, you can use bubble wrap to insulate the windows if they happen to lack good glazing units. The air-filled bubbles will create a vacuum-like environment while still offering an adequate level of visibility.

Question: Which common material was invented by Marc Chavannes and Alfred Fielding in 1957 initially as textured wallpaper?
Answer: Bubble-wrap