There’s an old saying about necessity being the mother of invention. Know who said it? Well, it’s an old English proverb, and the original author is unknown, although it has been falsely attributed to Plato. Let’s have a history lesson, shall we?
Imagine a world without cardboard boxes! How would your Amazon boxes arrive? How would bananas travel? Where would your Lucky Charms, (and afterward your leprechaun trap) live?
Sir Malcolm Thornhill asked himself those same questions back in 1817 (and we swear, those were the SAME questions he asked) He decided to use single sheets of thick paper to make boxes, and VOILA! Game changer. The cardboard box was born. Around 1840, silk manufacturers started using cardboard boxes to transport moths and eggs from Japan to Europe. In the 1890s, cardboard boxes finally went mainstream when the Kellogg Company started using it as packaging for their cereals. Personally, we had no idea that Kellogg had been around that long, so not only did we learn a ton about cardboard, we are learning about cereal too! You can read about the history of cereal here
Flash forward almost 70 years, and two Englishmen (Man, those English really paved the way for us, didn’t they?) Edward C. Healy and Edward E. Allen patented corrugated paper in 1856, but it was merely used as hat lining. In 1871, New Yorker Albert L. Jones patented single-sided corrugated board and the packaging industry started using it to wrap bottles and glass lanterns.
Talk about Serendipity! In 1890, a Brooklyn printer and paper bag manufacturer called Robert Gair accidentally invented the precut box when he was printing paper bags and a metal ruler – which he used to crease bags -suddenly shifted, cutting the bags. Gair put two and two together and realized he could make precut paperboard boxes by cutting and creasing paperboard in one operation. In 1895 he applied his idea to corrugated cardboard and introduced the first corrugated cardboard box to the world. The world welcomed Gair’s corrugated cardboard boxes with open arms and it didn’t take long until wooden crates and boxes all over the world were being replaced with cardboard boxes.
Box Living – The Next HGTV Show?
So, what’s new in the world of corrugated? US architect Peter Melbourne took the cardboard box to a whole new level when he designed and built a house made entirely from cardboard boxes – and yes, you can actually live in it! And check our earlier post about a kid in California who created an entire arcade made of corrugated. Its inspired kids all over the world to use their imaginations and engineering skills to invent new uses for boxes.
Corrugated cardboard boxes are a popular and versatile material, widely used for various packaging around the world.
The board is composed of a paper-based sheet with shallow grooves running vertically across its surface, and then one or two linerboards placed either side.
Corrugated cardboards are also known as corrugated fiberboards.
Now, clear your head and forget all you ever thought you knew about corrugated cardboard boxes.
Are they a new invention? Nope! Corrugated boards have been in existence for a very long time.
When Was the Cardboard Box Invented?
Far back as 1890, Robert Gair first mass-produced cardboard boxes. Although ‘Paperboard’ (Folded pieces of paper to make a box) boxes have been around since 1817.
How Has the Corrugated Box Evolved?
Corrugated cardboard boxes were first produced in 1856, and a couple of years later, it was mass produced in 1895.
Before cardboard boxes, wooden boxes were used for packaging. They got replaced in the early 1900s.
As you can see, for many years, cardboard boxes have been used for shipping goods or parcels.
Indeed the inventors of corrugated cardboard would probably marvel at what has become of their humble brown box today.
In recent times, there has been a lot of preaching for companies to ‘Go green’ and decrease the amount of plastic packaging that is being used today.
This call was made because the majority of plastic bags being used today for packaging are not biodegradable, and will sit in a landfill site for several thousand years before it deteriorates.
This has caused many packaging companies to look for alternative packing materials.
This meant that many packaging companies have been looking at how they can use innovative cardboard box solutions to replace plastic packaging, as cardboards are biodegradable.
The inventors of the corrugated cardboard boxes would be surprised to know that it can now be made waterproof and that it has now replaced many of the drinks containers such as milk, that would have been made of glass in their era.
Indeed they would also be amazed to see modern corrugated boxes being used to transport hot food such as pizzas.
Why Do We Need Cardboard Boxes?
The uses of this modern box are endless, with new designs and ideas being produced every year.
Cаrdbоаrd boxes аrе bеing uѕеd whеrеvеr possible tо replace рlаѕtiс расkаging.
They are now in use for shipping goods in virtually every industry on the planet, from shipping books to multi-million-pound electronic assemblies.
The box still provides one of the most effective forms of protection, despite being low cost.
Customizable Cardboard Boxes
Customized cardboard boxes are a simple way to advertise your business, show your client that you care about them and depict your brand.
You need custom boxes if your company deals with a lot of shipments every single day.
Doing all that with one simple shipment is an incredible achievement, but somehow it’s gotten so simple that, if you don’t use custom boxes you are falling behind.
Your competition is miles ahead of you.
We provide great quality custom box packaging Malaysia, packed with a colourful design, printing at very affordable prices.
With the changing trends in fashion, your customers will be very pleased to receive their orders in these colourful boxes.
Corrugated packaging can be tailored to choice. Modifications involve types, adhesive, coatings, weights, and treatments.
Thе material саn еvеn bе mаdе with flame rеѕiѕtаnt and ѕtаtiс control properties.
You can buy corrugated cardboard boxes from Golden Corrugated Box (M) Sdn Bhd, a reliable box packaging supplier in Malaysia.
Quality Packaging and Parcel delivery ensure your products arrive in one piece, at an affordable price.
Cardboard is a heavy type of paper, notable for its stiffness and durability. It was first invented in China some time in the 15th century, and is used for a wide variety of purposes. One of its more common uses is as a packaging material.
Cardboard boxes were first produced commercially in 1817 in England. Corrugated (also called pleated) paper was patented in England in 1856, used as a liner for tall hats, but corrugated cardboard would not be patented and used as a shipping material until 20 December 1871. The patent was issued to Albert Jones of New York City, New York for single-sided corrugated cardboard. Jones used the corrugated cardboard for wrapping bottles and glass lantern chimneys. The first machine for producing large quantities of corrugated cardboard was built in 1874 by G. Smyth, and in the same year Oliver Long improved upon Jones’ design by inventing corrugated cardboard with liner sheets on both sides. This was now cardboard as we know it today.
American Robert Gair was a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker during the 1870s, and while he was printing an order of seed bags a metal ruler normally used to crease bags shifted in position and cut the bag. Gair discovered that by cutting and creasing cardboard in one operation he could make prefabricated cartons. Extending this to corrugated cardboard was a straightforward development when the material became available. By the start of the 20th century, corrugated cardboard boxes began replacing the custom-made wooden crates and boxes previously used for trade.
The Kellogg brothers first used cardboard cartons to hold their flaked corn cereal, and later when they began marketing it to the general public a heat-sealed waxed bag of Waxtite was wrapped around the outside of the box and printed with their brand name. This marked the origin of the cereal box, though in modern times the sealed bag is plastic and is kept inside the box rather than outside.
Cardboard packaging has undergone minor changes in recent times due to the trend towards environmentalism. It is now common for cardboard to be manufactured with a large percentage of recycled fibers.