Homage to Cardboard

Cardboard.

We use it constantly, but it goes unappreciated day in and day out. Think of all the things that you use every day that are made of cardboard, like:

• Large boxes
• Small boxes
• Medium-sized boxes
• Arts and crafts made from various sized boxes

Yes, cardboard has all sorts of different uses. But where did it first come from?

To answer this question, we have to take a trip back in time to the 1800s. Tall silly-looking hats were all the rage at the time, but making felt hats from animal furs is a long and expensive process. Plus, they were filled to the brim *pause for laughter* with mercury. Several English gentleman who wore these hats suffered the fate of going insane and becoming badly stereotyped characters from a Lewis Carroll novel.


Then comes the 1850s and corrugated paper is patented in England and manufactured as a liner for tall stovepipe hats. Everyone digs the new caps, and life goes on.

Then, in the 1870s, a young Scottish whippersnapper by the name of Robert Gair shows up on the scene.

He just wants to make paper bags for seeds, and goes about doing so for a time. But one day his paper machine goes haywire and accidentally created corrugated cardboard.

Robert Gair says to himself, probably in the thickest Scottish accent you can imagine,
"I can sell this for lots o' money and drink scotch whiskey all day long!" (We can only assume at this point that drinking scotch all day long was Robert Gair's ultimate plan)


From this accident, he figured out a way to make the cardboard that we know today. So the next time you see cardboard, remember to say:

"Thanks Mister Gair, you really thought outside of the box on this one!"