Packaging First history

The idea of putting food safely in metal packaging was first had in 1809 when Napoleon Bonaparte said he would award 12thousand Franks to whomever comes up with a method to protect the army's food supply.

The world’s first commercial canning factory was on Southwark Park Road, London, and they produced the first canned goods for the royal navy in 1813.

Though cardboard itself had been invented several hundred years earlier in China, the cardboard box wasn’t created until 1817 by Sir Malcolm Thornhill.

Aluminum particles were first extracted from bauxite ore in 1825 at the high price of $545 per pound.

Styrene was first distilled from a balsam tree in 1831.

Vinyl chloride, discovered in 1835, provided for the further development of rubber chemistry.

Fast forward to the Industrial Revolution: this era (starting from about 1760-1840) gave way to major technological advancements, as the demand for better quality packaging increased.

Collapsible, soft metal tubes, today known as “flexible packaging,” were first used for artist’s paints in 1841.

Several years after the first commercial paper bags were created in 1844, Francis Wolle invented a machine capable of mass-producing paper bags.

Corrugated paper received a British patent in 1856.

1862: Plastic made its first appearance at the Great International Exhibition in London, presented by Alexander Parkes.

Screws and hammers were being used to open metal packaging until 1866.

Clear glass bottles Henry Heinz started out selling freshly grated horseradish in 1869.

In 1870 New Yorker John Wesley Hyatt was given a patent for "celluloid” produced in high temperatures and pressure and has low nitrate content.

In 1875 can opener was invented.

The development that affected glass packaging the most was the patenting of the "automated rotary glass manufacture machine” in 1889.

In New York in 1907, Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland developed Bakelite, an early plastic.

In 1912, Brandenberger built a machine to manufacture cellophane film.

But a sturdier multi-walled paper sack for larger quantities could not replace cloth until 1925 when a means of sewing the ends was finally invented.

Adhesive tape and then plastic wrap were developed in the 1930’s.

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE) was patented in 1941.

1946: “Stopette,” a deodorant created by Doctor Jules Montenier, brought the spray bottle into the commercial world of plastics.

1954: Zipper-seal bags, created by Robert W. Vergobbi, were initially intended for use as pencil bags, but their versatility soon turned them toward food storage.

Tins began to replace glass for drinks in the 1960’s.

But it became apparent that the bags could do much more, and Ziploc® bags were introduced in 1968 as food storage bags.The first baggies and sandwich bags on a roll were introduced

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles were first patented in 1973 by chemist Nathaniel Wyeth.

Plastic bottles were first made of PET in 1977.

Furthermore, in 1978 the clamshell blister pack was patented in the U.S by inventor Thomas Jake Lunsford.

Its plastic counterpart, introduced in 1983, is not only cheaper but it’s much easier to use.

Walter Soroka, Fundamentals of Packaging Technology, Second Edition, 2000, published by the Institute of Packaging Professionals