Where does cardboard packaging come from?

Type of packaging

For the song by Flo, see Cardboard Box (song)

Cardboard boxes are industrially prefabricated boxes, primarily used for packaging goods and materials. Specialists in industry seldom use the term cardboard because it does not denote a specific material.[1][2] The term cardboard may refer to a variety of heavy paper-like materials, including card stock, corrugated fiberboard,[3] and paperboard.[4] Cardboard boxes can be readily recycled.

Terminology

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Several types of containers are sometimes called cardboard boxes:

In business and industry, material producers, container manufacturers,[5] packaging engineers,[6] and standards organizations,[7] try to use more specific terminology. There is still not complete and uniform usage. Often the term "cardboard" is avoided because it does not define any particular material.

Broad divisions of paper-based packaging materials are:

• Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags, or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets.
• Paperboard, sometimes known as cardboard, is generally thicker (usually over 0.25 mm or 10 points) than paper. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a basis weight (grammage) above 224 g/m2, but there are exceptions. Paperboard can be single- or multi-ply.
• Corrugated fiberboard sometimes known as corrugated board or corrugated cardboard, is a combined paper-based material consisting of a fluted corrugated medium and one or two flat liner boards. The flute gives corrugated boxes much of their strength and is a contributing factor for why corrugated fiberboard is commonly used for shipping and storage.[8]

There are also multiple names for containers:

History

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The first commercial paperboard (not corrugated) box is sometimes credited to the firm M. Treverton & Son[9] in England in 1817.[10][11][12] Cardboard box packaging was made the same year in Germany.[13]

The Scottish-born Robert Gair invented the pre-cut cardboard or paperboard box in 1890 – flat pieces manufactured in bulk that folded into boxes. Gair's invention came about as a result of an accident: he was a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker during the 1870s, and one day, while he was printing an order of seed bags, a metal ruler normally used to crease bags shifted in position and cut them. Gair discovered that by cutting and creasing in one operation he could make prefabricated paperboard boxes. Applying this idea to corrugated boxboard was a straightforward development when the material became available around the turn of the twentieth century.[14]

Cardboard boxes were developed in France about 1840 for transporting the Bombyx mori moth and its eggs by silk manufacturers, and for more than a century the manufacture of cardboard boxes was a major industry in the Valréas area.[15][16]

The advent of lightweight flaked cereals increased the use of cardboard boxes. The first to use cardboard boxes as cereal cartons was the Kellogg Company.

Corrugated (also called pleated) paper was patented in England in 1856, and used as a liner for tall hats, but corrugated boxboard was not patented and used as a shipping material until 20 December 1871. The patent was issued to Albert Jones of New York City for single-sided (single-face) corrugated board.[17] Jones used the corrugated board for wrapping bottles and glass lantern chimneys. The first machine for producing large quantities of corrugated board was built in 1874 by G. Smyth, and in the same year Oliver Long improved upon Jones's design by inventing corrugated board with liner sheets on both sides.[18] This was corrugated cardboard as we know it today.

The first corrugated cardboard box manufactured in the US was in 1895.[19] By the early 1900s, wooden crates and boxes were being replaced by corrugated paper shipping cartons.

By 1908, the terms "corrugated paper-board" and "corrugated cardboard" were both in use in the paper trade.[20]

Crafts and entertainment

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Cardboard and other paper-based materials (paperboard, corrugated fiberboard, etc.) can have a post-primary life as a cheap material for the construction of a range of projects, among them being science experiments, children's toys, costumes, or insulative lining. Some children enjoy playing inside boxes.

A common cliché is that, if presented with a large and expensive new toy, a child will quickly become bored with the toy and play with the box instead. Although this is usually said somewhat jokingly, children certainly enjoy playing with boxes, using their imagination to portray the box as an infinite variety of objects. One example of this in popular culture is from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, whose protagonist, Calvin, often imagined a cardboard box as a "transmogrifier", a "duplicator", or a time machine.

So prevalent is the cardboard box's reputation as a plaything that in 2005 a cardboard box was added to the National Toy Hall of Fame in the US,[21] one of very few non-brand-specific toys to be honoured with inclusion. As a result, a toy "house" (actually a log cabin) made from a large cardboard box was added to the Hall, housed at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.

The Metal Gear series of stealth video games has a running gag involving a cardboard box as an in-game item, which can be used by the player to try to sneak through places without getting caught by enemy sentries.

Housing and furniture

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Living in a cardboard box is stereotypically associated with homelessness.[22] However, in 2005, Melbourne architect Peter Ryan designed a house composed largely of cardboard.[23] More common are small seatings or little tables made from corrugated cardboard. Merchandise displays made of cardboard are often found in self-service shops.

Cushioning by crushing

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Mass and viscosity of the enclosed air help together with the limited stiffness of boxes to absorb the energy of oncoming objects. In 2012, British stuntman Gary Connery safely landed via wingsuit without deploying his parachute, landing on a 3.6-metre (12 ft) high crushable "runway" (landing zone) built with thousands of cardboard boxes.[24]

See also

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• Banana box, a type of cardboard box designed for transportation of bananas
• Eurocontainer, a system for boxes that can be used for reusable packaging for transport and storage
• The Adventure of the Cardboard Box (a Sherlock Holmes story)

References

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Where would we be without cardboard boxes, eh? In a right mess that’s where. Apples and toys all over the place. Books all over the floor. When it comes to moving home, storing clothes or entertaining children you can’t go wrong with a good old-fashioned cardboard box. But where did they come from originally? According to the history books, the first cardboard (or more specifically paperboard) box was invented in 1817 in England by the firm M.Treverton & Son. Cardboard box packaging was made the same year in Germany. 

The First Fold-Up Box

The telephone, television and tarmac were all invented by Scotsmen, so it’s no surprise to learn that they had a hand in the development of cardboard boxes too. Scottish-born Robert Gair invented the pre-cut cardboard box in 1890 – flat pieces manufactured in bulk that folded into shape. Gair’s invention was the result of a happy accident: he was a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker during the 1870s, and one day, while he was printing an order of seed bags, a metal ruler normally used to crease the bags shifted in position and cut through them. Eureka! Gair discovered that by cutting and creasing at the same time he could make prefabricated paperboard boxes. Applying this idea to corrugated boxboard was a straightforward development when the material became available at the end of the 1800s.

Cardboard Boxes For Breakfast

The invention of lightweight flaked breakfast cereals increased the use of cardboard boxes. The Kellogg Company was one of the first to use cardboard boxes as cereal cartons and, of course, they still do to this day.

Innovation Through Corrugation

Corrugated ­­­– or pleated – paper was patented in England in 1856, and originally used as a liner in the manufacture of tall hats, but corrugated boxboard was not patented and used as a shipping material until 1871. The patent was issued to Albert Jones of New York City for single-sided corrugated board. Jones used the corrugated board for wrapping bottles and glass lantern chimneys prior to transportation. The first machine for producing large quantities of corrugated board was built by G. Smyth in 1874, and in the same year Oliver Long improved upon Jones’s design by inventing corrugated board with liner sheets on both sides. This was the forerunner of the corrugated cardboard we know today. The first corrugated cardboard box manufactured in the US was in 1895. By the early 1900s, wooden crates and boxes were being replaced by corrugated paper shipping cartons. Cardboard boxes were much lighter and much easier to handle – it’s no wonder that the invention caught on!

Boxes Coming Out Of Our Ears

Whether you’re moving home, putting stuff into storage, or building a fort for the kids, we have every kind of box you could possibly need. We’ve got sturdy corrugated cardboard packing boxes in small, medium and large sizes. We’ve got great big plasma TV cartons. We have mirror/picture frame packs. We do value packs containing 10 medium boxes. We have a wardrobe box – the perfect hanging garment carrier. We even do shoe boxes. Cardboard boxes have come a long way in 200 years. If you’d like to see just how far, please come and browse the extensive cutting edge collection we have on display in the reception area of our facilities in Bow, Harrow, Marylebone and Beckton. If you like cardboard boxes you won’t be disappointed. If you don’t like cardboard boxes, why on earth did you read this blog?