The Curious Origins
of Bubble Wrap
Bubble Wrap comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.
It is the perfect stuff for protecting valuable firearms during shipment.
I know this will come as a shock, but I have a lot of nervous energy. One of my co-workers left a fidget spinner at my workspace at the clinic several years ago. Apparently, this was some kind of psychological experiment. I’d be willing to bet there were hidden cameras somewhere with serious-looking bearded researchers studying my every aberrant move. The following day the blasted thing had been confiscated and thrown away with great prejudice. It appears that I am indeed intolerable around such stuff.
As bad as that might be, my unfortunate wife has it so much worse. Mindlessly tapping my fingers on things is adequate to drive the poor woman to distraction. I’m sure she covets your prayers…
This bizarre compunction extends to most anything that makes noise. I can control these urges when I set my mind to it. However, my kryptonite is bubble wrap. Place me in a secure facility with a couple of acres of that stuff and I’ll pop those rascals until I starve to death. It seems I’m not the only person in the universe who finds bubble wrap pretty darn fascinating.
The Sealed Air Corporation makes padded envelopes,
food sealants, and, of course, good old-fashioned Bubble Wrap.
All of that stuff began as a failed effort to produce wallpaper.
In the Beginning…
The 1950s were a unique era in American history. We were still coasting after the greatest military victory in human history, and we were inventing stuff like there was no tomorrow. Think the transistor, the credit card, the microwave oven, power steering, the Barbie doll, and the AR-15 rifle. All of that stuff came into being during this remarkable decade. Amidst this remarkable milieu, two engineers named Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes set out to change the world. Their original mission was to create a radical new sort of wallpaper.
These two clever guys started out with a pair of plastic shower curtains. They used a heat gun to seal these two sheets of plastic together in such a way as to trap a bunch of air bubbles in between. The plan was to give this stuff an adhesive paper backing and secure the resulting inflated amalgam to the wall as custom décor. Inexplicably, nobody wanted bubbly inflatable wallpaper.
In frustration, Fielding and Chavannes repackaged this amazing material as insulation for greenhouses. In this guise they sold a little bit but not much. However, these two guys were persistent.
In 1960, Fielding and Chavannes formed the Sealed Air Corporation and trademarked the term bubble wrap. The following year they had an epiphany. That’s when they suggested that you could use their extraordinary Bubble Wrap as a packing material. Their first serious client was International Business Machines.
The IBM 1401 was a variable-wordlength decimal computer first launched in 1959. The 1401 was intended to replace unit record equipment for processing data stored on punch cards. The 1401 has been described as the Ford Model-T of the burgeoning computer industry. IBM produced 12,000 machines before production wrapped up in 1971.
IBM used bubble wrap to ship these early computers. The complex devices made the trip safely, and word got out that bubble wrap was freaking awesome. Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes were inducted into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame in 1993. The Sealed Air Corporation celebrated the 50th anniversary of Bubble Wrap in 2010.
In addition to shipping stuff, bubble wrap is a proven stress relief material. At the headquarters of the Sealed Air Corporation, they maintain “stress relief boxes” filled with bubble wrap. Any time one of their employees gets frustrated, they can snatch up a stress relief box and pop a little bubble wrap.
Giving Back
The Sealed Air Corporation sponsored an Annual Bubble Wrap Competition for Young Inventors between 2006 and 2008. This competition offered prizes for kids to devise clever unconventional applications for bubble wrap. Winning inventions included the bubble wrap car door cover, the bubble wrap cushy wheelchair, and the transformable Bubble Wrap kite.
I am forever amazed at folks who are sufficiently insightful as to look at common things and devise clever uncommon applications for them. Nowadays, the Sealed Air Corporation employs 16,500 people. Their total revenue in 2023 exceeded $5.5 billion. They have more than 200 separate locations around the world.
Today, Sealed Air produces a wide variety of products. Bubble Wrap keeps most everything safe while in transit. Cryovac is used to wrap food. Once properly sealed, Cryovac excludes the air from comestibles and helps prevent the growth of organic contaminants. Cryovac was originally produced to help keep turkeys fresh while being shipped for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Nowadays it is everywhere.
The Sealed Air Corporation is a classic American success story. I have no idea the numbers, but I’d be willing to bet that Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes made a pretty decent living out of bubble wrap. And to think that it all began as some really tasteless wallpaper.
