Imagine walking into a living room in the late 1950s and finding the walls covered in plastic bubbles. That strange decorating idea might sound like something dreamed up for a futuristic movie set, but it is how one of the world’s most familiar packing materials got its start.
In 1957, engineers Alfred W. Fielding and Marc Chavannes were working in Hawthorne, New Jersey, on a new kind of textured wall covering. They laminated two sheets of plastic together, trapping pockets of air between them. The result was a sheet covered with bubbles.
The inventors thought the unusual material might appeal to homeowners and interior designers looking for something modern and different. It didn’t. Bubble-covered walls simply failed to catch on.
But Fielding and Chavannes did not throw away their idea. They began looking for something else to do with it. One possibility was greenhouse insulation, taking advantage of the air trapped between the plastic layers. That idea also failed to turn their invention into a hit.
Then came the breakthrough: Those little pockets of air were very good at cushioning things.
Fielding and Chavannes founded Sealed Air Corp. in 1960. Bubble Wrap found its real calling as protective packaging, and an early important customer was IBM, which used the cushioning material to help protect its 1401 computers during shipment.
A failed decorating idea had become a shipping solution.
There is another part of the story that may be even more relatable. Howard Fielding, Alfred Fielding’s son, recalled being a young child and squeezing the bubbles simply because they were fun to pop. Decades later, popping Bubble Wrap remains almost as recognizable as using it to protect something fragile.
The story is a good reminder that an invention doesn’t always succeed at the job its creator intended. Sometimes the strange idea that won’t work on the wall is exactly what the world needs inside a cardboard box.
Bizarre Bytes gives us those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, or to stump your in-laws.
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