Skip to content

teodolist studio

ID Tell us what you need

What we do AI consultation Classroom explainers Storybook shorts Lyric videos Brand and launch films AI apps and automation Work Hello, World All work and about Stories library How it works Meet the crew The five steps The full workflow Questions Bahasa Indonesia Tell us what you need

Home
Stories
the bubble wrap

the bubble wrap

Bubble wrap was invented as wallpaper

Bubble wrap was invented as wallpaper, and nobody wanted it.

60 s
Inventions & everyday things

Watch it in Bahasa Indonesia →

The real story

In 1957, in a garage in Hawthorne, New Jersey, engineers Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes sealed two plastic shower curtains together, trapping rows of air bubbles. They hoped to sell it as textured, easy-to-clean wallpaper. When that went nowhere, they tried selling it as greenhouse insulation, which didn't catch on either.

In 1960 they founded Sealed Air, and the breakthrough came when IBM needed to ship its new 1401 computer, a delicate and expensive machine. Bubble wrap protected it, and packaging changed for good. People loved popping it so much that Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day is celebrated on the last Monday of January. In 2015 Sealed Air even launched a version that doesn't pop, to save shipping space.

What the narrator says

Tap a line to jump to it.

The facts we checked

In 1957 engineers Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes sealed two shower curtains together, trapping air bubbles, hoping to sell it as textured wallpaper
Wallpaper flopped; greenhouse insulation flopped too
In 1960 it was used to protect a new IBM computer during shipping — and packaging was never the same

Sources

We checked every number and date on screen before the video was made.

Made by teodolist studio

Want a series like this?

Need videos like this for your brand or school?

We made all 240 of these, in English and Indonesian, from one script each. We make story series for brands, schools and channels.

Tell us what you need How storybook videos work Videos for schools

More stories like this

1:10 the emoji The original heart emoji: 144 pixels from Japan, 1999

1:04 the snooze button Why is the snooze button 9 minutes? The 1956 gear story

1:06 the box The steel box that changed the world: the first container ship (1956)

1:06 the flyer From 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk to Mars: the Wright Flyer's journey

0:52 the button Does the elevator 'close door' button actually work?

1:03 the burr How a burr stuck to a dog became Velcro

← All stories Next story: Why rendang takes hours: the dish that keeps for weeks without a fridge →