Thursday, October 07, 2010

The Strange History of Bubble Wrap

I was not aware of the long and twisted development path for bubble wrap. From Wikipedia:
"Bubble wrap was invented in 1957 by engineers Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes. Fielding and Chavannes sealed two shower curtains together, creating a smattering of air bubbles, which they originally tried to sell as wallpaper. When the product turned out to be unsuccessful as wallpaper, the team marketed it as greenhouse insulation. Although Bubble Wrap was branded by Sealed Air Corporation (founded by Fielding and Chavannes) in 1960, it was not until a few years later that its use in protective packaging was discovered. As a packaging material, Bubble Wrap's first client was IBM, which used the product to protect the IBM 1401 computer during shipment"
Wallpaper? Greenhouse insulation? It shows how hindsight is 20/20.

1 comment:

bespoke conservatories said...

Hmmm... I wonder how much Alfred and Marc made with patent licenses of the bubble wrap.