It’s the last Monday of January—officially Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day according to those who keep track of these things. (Like National Today’s item from a previous year, at the bottom of this page.)
To me, every day is Bubble Wrap appreciation day. My father and his business partner spent years developing the stuff in the 1950s, and almost as long figuring out what to do with it. The proto-wrap rolled out in 1957, and Sealed Air Corporation was formed in 1960. As I was an only child, that makes the bubbles and the company like little brothers to me.
I was very young at the birth of Bubble Wrap, so I’ve had to do some research into family history. Pop didn’t share his family or trade secrets. But ever since I first posted on the subject, I’ve heard from reporters around the world who wanted to know more about it. First came the German producers for a series called Galileo who were working on a project about “Products that Came About by Chance”. (This video is only available in Germany, so you can see the page but you can’t see me sporting my pandemic hairstyle.)
In the fall, I did an interview with producers of a Discovery + series about accidental inventions that will debut in the spring. They even got video of me attempting to burst some of what was probably pseudo-Bubble Wrap, based on its wimpy pop.
And in late December, it was London calling when the producers of “Oops, I Accidentally Changed the World” contacted me looking for photos of Al Fielding and Marc Chavannes for British TV. So bibliophiles, Britophiles, and bubble-philes, stay tuned!
Meanwhile, I hope you’ll enjoy this episode of “The Bubble Wrap-Up” from Sealed Air Corporation, with yours truly as guest:
How do you intend to celebrate Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day? I think I’ll break out the bubbly and listen to the Boston Pops.
Howard-
I remember when you brought a sample of bubble “wall paper” into Mrs. Link’s 4th grade class for ” show and tell”. It wasn’t to years later that I was able to make the connection that your father was the inventor and subsequent owner of Sealed Air Corp. That connection was made when we installed a foam packaging machine in our plant and the salesperson talked about the history of Sealed Air Corp.
What a small world it really is……….best of luck to you.
Hi, Terry! Yep, I did bring it in to Mrs. Link’s class, and probably others. That would have been around — what? — 1964, when nobody other than tech companies had seen the stuff.
Dad was one of the two inventors of Bubble Wrap, but was not owner of the company. He and Marc Chavannes assigned their patents to Sealed Air, which was publicly traded. He was executive vice president for research and development for many years, until his retirement. Good hearing from you after all these years!