Nowadays, we usually take the existence of corrugated cardboard for granted but you never know that it has just been in use for about 200 years. Before 19th century, wooden cases, crates or boxes were more common used for storing and shipping cargo; and as you may know, they were expensive and heavy for transportation and logistics. How corrugated cardboard was born and since when it was popular in packaging are what we are going to tell in this article.
According to Wikipedia, the normal cardboard first appeared in France in the 1840s and for decades, the biggest manufacturers of cardboard all based in Valréas, southeastern France.
During this time, cardboard was used mainly by the silk producers to ship their silk moth and its eggs. Later, Kellogg started to use cardboard for their cereals and this packaging became more popular in processed food industry.
The birth of corrugated paper and boxes
Not until 1856 was corrugated paper invented by Edward G. Healy and Edward E. Allen. However, they only used this kind of wavy thick paper to strengthen the tall hat and had no further intend to develop it in logistics field.
In 1871, Albert Jones used single-faced corrugated board to wrap bottles and glassware; then, he patterned corrugated paper as shipping material in USA on 20 December of the same year.
The mass production of corrugated cardboard started in 1874 by the new machinery invention of G.Smith. Later Oliver Long developed the double-faced corrugated cardboard as we use today. In 1895, the corrugated boxed was firstly produced to replace wooden cases or crates in transportation.
As you can see, no innovation could be available without human’s creation and hard work. The simple stuff like our corrugated cardboard is the contribution of the predecessors to make it into common usage nowadays. Botta Packaging appreciates all those values and we are working day by day to innovate our products.
