Who invented a cardboard box?

Have you ever imagined how the world would look like if the cardboard box was never invented? How would you pack for moving to a new place? How would Amazon deliver their goods to you? This four angled, square shaped invention spontaneously became a symbol of transport, protection, efficiency and change. But who is to be credited for this innovation, and when did it all start?

Corrugated (also called pleated) paper was at first used as a liner for tall hats, and it was patented in England in 1856. Fifteen years later, on the 20^th of December, 1871, first corrugated boxboard was patented and used as material for shipping containers. Credits for inventing a single-sided corrugated board are given to Albert Jones from New York City and three years later, Oliver Long improved Jones's design by adding liner sheets on both sides of corrugated board creating a design that we know today.

In 1874, G. Smyth built the first machine for producing bigger amounts of corrugated board, but it took 15 years for people to start using this new material to create a case packaging.

In 1890, a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker, Robert Gair invented the pre-cut cardboard box. He came to this invention by accident. One day, while he was printing an order of seed bags, a metal ruler which is used to crease bags changed position and cut them. Gair then discovered that by cutting and creasing at the same time he could make prefabricated paperboard boxes! This idea was applied to corrugated boxboard when the material became available around the turn of the twentieth century.

In 1915 John Van Wormer of Toledo, Ohio, took the credits for inventing first "paper bottle," - folded blank box for holding milk he called "Pure-Pak." The fact that milk carton could be folded, glued, filled with milk, and sealed at a dairy farm was considered a great innovation at the time. Increased demand for lightweight flaked cereals lead to the rise in the use of cardboard boxes and first company to use cardboard boxes as cereal cartons was the Kellogg Company.

During all this time, Japan was way ahead of Europe and USA when it comes to the use of cardboard boxes. Since 1840, Japanese silk manufacturers have been using these boxes for transporting the Bombyx mori moth and its eggs from Japan to Europe.

Today, cardboard cases became an immediate association for shipping and stacking of various goods. Close to 100 billion boxes are produced each year in the U.S. That is a lot of boxes and just imagine all the time and money that can be saved if each of those boxes was filled by efficient and economic packaging line! For more on Tishma Technologies case packaging systems, please click here.