Who invented the cardboard box?

Few inventions can be seamlessly integrated into our daily life like simple cartons. We are glad to see them piled up near the front door. We stuffed them with paper. Our cats like to use them as their own private living room. However, we seldom stop to consider how convenient they are than sacks. To whom should we owe this simple but indispensable original miracle?

In BC 1 and the 2nd century BC, the Han Dynasty in China was busy pioneering the use of paper. At the same time, mulberry bark is used to wrap and protect food, which is one of the earliest examples of packaging with solid wood products. However, the earliest carton form we know today appeared at the beginning of19th century, and the German board game Fortress Besieged of 18 17 is the oldest example. Throughout the19th century, companies began to use boxes as storage and transportation tools for grain, even moth eggs used by silk manufacturers.

However, in order to turn these carriers into the three-dimensional wonders we know today, additional twisting or folding is needed. 1856, the top hat vendors Edward Allen and Edward Healey used a kind of hard paper, which was made of grooved paper between two layers to provide the stability and warmth of the lining: it was the predecessor of corrugated board.

However, the real breakthrough occurred in 1879. At that time, Robert Gail, the owner of Brooklyn Paper Mill, found that he could carve on a piece of cardboard, and then let his printing machine cut it at the same time, which was laborious by hand. When these flat pieces were folded together, the cardboard box as we know it was born.

Gair sold this convenient new storage method to a consumer goods company, and finally got an order of 2 million yuan from the biscuit czar in Beske. Now, snacks can be transported without being crushed, and soon, cartons will be moved from kitchen cabinets to any place where cheap and effective packaging forms are needed. In the1930s, Finland * * * even took these boxes home as part of the pregnant women's set meal for new mothers who might not be able to afford a crib. Babies take a nap in a box with a mattress, which has continued to this day.