In today’s culture, the cardboard box plays a significant but underappreciated role. It isn’t easy to think how we ever got along without them, yet they have only been in use on a widespread basis for the past hundred years or so. Here is the history of this straightforward yet significant invention. Industrially produced, premade cardboard boxes are typically used for moving or packaging items. Sir Malcolm Thornhill created the first cardboard box used for commerce in England in 1817. However, the first cardboard box was produced in the United States in 1895. Corrugated paper shipping boxes had supplanted wooden boxes by 1900. The introduction of flaked cereals led to an increase in cardboard box usage. The Kellogg brothers were reportedly the first to package cereal in these boxes. Let’s discuss their history and why they have been so popular for centuries.
Children and cardboard boxes
According to a well-worn adage, if you give kids a big and expensive new toy, they’ll soon get bored and start playing with the box. Although people often remark in jest, kids like playing with boxes and utilising their imaginations to make the box into a myriad of different objects. Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes illustrates this in popular culture. He frequently transformed these boxes into fantastical devices, such as time machines and “transmogrifies.”
In 2005, someone inducted a cardboard box into the National Toy Hall of Fame due to how popular its reputation as a toy is. One of the scarce toys that people honour with inclusion is not brand-specific. The stereotype of homeless individuals residing in custom cardboard boxes is another more depressing application of the box. Thus, you must know that Melbourne architect Peter Ryan constructed a cardboard-heavy house in 2005. Hence, these boxes have served various purposes throughout the past 200 years, including as a crucial component of commerce, a kid’s toy, and a temporary residence.
When and who invented the cardboard box?
Back in 1817, in England, someone created the cardboard box. The box was made of plain paperboard and wasn’t corrugated, but it was still a box (Kellogg Cereals made this box popular in the middle of the 1800s)! However, there were many other variations of the cardboard box along the way, which we’ll discuss in the section below on the “evolution of the cardboard box.”
How Has the Cardboard Box Evolved?
Although corrugated paper came into the market as a hat liner before being patented in 1856, it has been around before then. The corrugated cardboard box as a method of material shipment and handling didn’t exist until 1871. The corrugated cardboard box that we are all familiar with today was made possible in just three years due to the invention of the first machine capable of producing massive amounts of corrugated board.
With the invention of pre-cut single pieces of board that you could fold into boxes in 1890, custom cardboard boxes underwent yet another significant advance. By 1895, corrugated boxes had leapt the shores. Moreover, companies in America made them for the first time.
What Came Before the Cardboard Box?
Before the creation of cardboard boxes, wooden boxes were the most common way to transport products. However, large-scale reproductions of those wooden packaging solutions are still quite pricey and difficult to come by.
How do companies make cardboard boxes?
Wouldn’t you rather see the process of making cardboard boxes printed than let us explain how companies manufacture them? We can all benefit from the amazing “How It’s Made” series on the Science Channel. Let’s learn how different companies make these boxes. You may visit this channel and see how to make these boxes. Moreover, you can know about different ideas to customize them according to your needs.
Why do we need cardboard packaging?
One of the simplest methods for moving items from one area to another is not possible without high-quality boxes. Thus, printed cardboard boxes can be the best solution. When relocating from one place to another or just packing up a case of juice boxes, these boxes can assist group a variety of items into a manageable space. Hence, it can be the best means of shifting products and ensuring their safety during handling.
It protects your items for centuries.
Initially, some background in 1817, a company used a cardboard box for the first time ever. Interestingly enough, it was for a German board game. Thus, to safely move glassware and other fragile items, different companies improved the material later on into corrugated cardboard in the 1870s. Hence, the rest is history. Corrugated cardboard is a paper “sandwich” of two durable flat sheets with a fluted sheet. In the United States nowadays, cardboard packaging is popular for around 80% of items. The material’s stiffness serves as a cushion and holds things in place. Therefore, producers of high-tech and high-quality items frequently use them to shield their items from harm.
The best packaging solution for foods
A little more than 60% of the cardboard manufactured annually is essential for food packaging. Thus, most companies use it frequently to store juice, other liquids, confectionery, dry items, and frozen foods. One of the first goods that a company packaged in this paper was cereal. Dry cereals remain safe and sealed in a box. Moreover, they have a longer shelf life. Hence, they appeal to consumers more visually and are simpler to store and distribute.
You can also keep fresh meals safer in corrugated cardboard packaging. In one experiment, scientists inoculated plastic and corrugated trays with bacteria, filled them with sterilised peaches, and then sealed them up. The scientists observed that 95% of the peaches had ingested germs in the plastic containers after 48 hours. Moreover, contamination in cardboard trays was never more than 25%.
It has revolutionized the process of shipping products
Cardboard allows for more customer access to items without requiring them to leave their homes or pay exorbitant shipping expenses. It is because cardboard box designs are lightweight, strong, and inexpensive to create. They are also simple to assemble, disassemble, and seal. Thus, the usage of bulky wooden packaging solutions constrained the number of products that you could transport at once prior to the turn of the 20th century. Hence, because of this, cardboard packing has also benefited the industry.
Less production of waste
It is so common among shipping businesses because cardboard can be recyclable. Hence, it helps to make various items, including cat shelters, magazine holders, play structures, and bird feeders. Thus, you can simply recycle cardboard boxes wholesale once you have used them.
You must understand the importance of cardboard and how it has helped the packaging industry. We have seen different attributes of these boxes and understood why they have become so much popular in the market. Thus, we can conclude that we live hold charged cardboard boxes for centuries. They have helped a lot of industries to become popular in the market.