Watch their video above to learn about how cardboard boxes are made!Ĭardboard boxes remain one of the simplest ways to move things from one place to another. The Science Channel is here to help us all with their fantastic “How It’s Made” series. We could explain how cardboard boxes are made, but wouldn’t you rather watch them get made? Those wooden crates were (and still are) pretty expensive and hard to replicate on a grand scale though. Wooden crates were the predominant means for moving materials prior to the invention of the cardboard box. It only took three years for the first machine to produce large quantities of corrugated board to come into being, creating the corrugated cardboard box we all know and love today.ġ890 brought about another huge innovation in cardboard boxes, as pre-cut single pieces of board that could be folded into boxes were invented.īy 1895, corrugated cardboard boxes jumped shores and began being produced in America for the first time. It wasn’t until 1871 that the corrugated cardboard box came into existence as a means of shipping and handling materials. There have been many incarnations of the cardboard box along the way though, which we’ll highlight next in the “evolution of the cardboard box” section.Ĭorrugated paper was patented in 1856, but used as a liner in hats for the beginning of its existence. The box was simple paperboard and was not corrugated, but it was a box (Kellogg Cereals helped popularize this box in the mid-1800s)! The cardboard box was invented all the way back in 1817 in England.

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