
I’m Always Chasing Rainbows
Reading Time: 2 minutes The scientific explanation doesn’t matter. It was simply another welcome sign on our way to an important life milestone. (Gallery, video.) Continue reading I’m Always Chasing Rainbows
Reading Time: 2 minutes The scientific explanation doesn’t matter. It was simply another welcome sign on our way to an important life milestone. (Gallery, video.) Continue reading I’m Always Chasing Rainbows
Reading Time: 2 minutes But that big hunk of liverwurst has been there since October 1st, and today is the 23rd of May! Continue reading Don’t buy the liverwurst!
Reading Time: 3 minutes Brian Clemens, Diana Rigg, Patrick MacNee, Sean Connery, even my friends Larry and Tex, are all gone now. Ars longa, vita brevis. Continue reading Budding Writer, 1979: Transitions
Reading Time: 2 minutes Other than the creepy bit, the letter showed a complete turnabout from my father’s previous position on my writing career. Continue reading Budding Writer, 1979: A very strange letter
Reading Time: 3 minutes Someone ground five words out of this historic marker and painted it over. Was this a literal case of erasing history? Or was it editing to erase a slur? Continue reading When history draws a blank, legend will fill it in
Hello, and welcome! I’ve noticed a major increase in visits to this post over the last two days. Would you be kind enough to comment below on how you found it? Most seem to be coming from Google search, so could you tell me your search terms and what you’re looking for? I also refer you to my post on “The Bubble Wrap back story” elsewhere on the blog. Thanks! — Howard
An invention that flopped as a wallpaper 60 years ago popped into public awareness soon afterward. When IBM chose the material to protect its delicate super computers, it changed packing and shipping forever. Today its role in pop culture as a toy, stress reliever and even modern art is celebrated every January on Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.
In 1957, Marc A. Chavannes, a Swiss chemical engineer, approached mechanical engineer Alfred W. Fielding with the concept of creating an insulating, textured wallpaper by sealing two sheets of plastic together on a paper backing. Chavannes had been working on ways to emboss thermoplastic film as early as 1948, but that method resulted in a textured sheet without the air cushioning we know today.
Working out of a small garage across the street from the Fielding Machine Co. in Hawthorne, N.J., they started by trapping air between two shower curtains. The material was not practical as a wallpaper, but in creating it they had developed a method to vacuum-form a pattern of air bubbles between two sealed sheets of treated plastic using machines Fielding developed.
The next application they tried was greenhouse insulation, but that also was not a success. However, on a bumpy flight into Newark Airport one day, they hit upon the ultimate use for their product: protecting fragile items during shipping.
They were the first to envision what became an entirely new industry: protective packaging. Until then, products were shipped mostly in sawdust or discarded or shredded newspaper, paper wadding, and other dusty, abrasive and often inky paper products. Now they faced another challenge: persuading shippers to buy a stronger, cleaner packaging material instead of using essentially free recycled industrial waste.
Continue reading “The birth of Bubble Wrap”